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JESUS  CHRIST 

WILLIAM  FRASER  McDOWELL 


BV  4010  .M3 

Mc  Dowel  1,  William  Fraser, 

1858-1937. 
. . .Good  ministers  of  Jesus 

nhit-   i  ct  


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 


A  MAN'S  RELIGION  :    LETTERS  TO  MEN 

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1t,ma„  JSeecfter  lecturer  on  *«acW„«(  /CT -)  19 
gale  mxibneitp,  1917  ^^•(f//'(;.C.H  V.^ 

GOOD  MINISTERS  OF 
JESUS  CHRIST 


By 
WILLIAM  FRASER  McDOWELL 

One  of  the  Bishops 

of  the 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church 


THE    ABINGDON    PRESS 

NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1917,  by 
WILLIAM  FRASER  McDOWELL 


First  Edition  Printed  May,  1917 
Reprinted  June,  1917 


CONTENTS 

Lecture 

Personal  Foreword 

Page 
7 

I.  The  Ministry  of  Revelation 

**  Show  us  the  Father." 

II.   The  Ministry  of  Redemption 

11 

51 

"He  shall  save  his  people  from  their 
sins." 

\1   III.   The  Ministry  of  Incarnation 89 

"The  Word  was  made  flesh,  and 
dwelt  among  us." 

IV.  The  Ministry  of  Reconciliation.  . .     127 
"  We  are  ambassadors  for  Christ." 

J     V.  The  Ministry  of  Rescue , 165 

"  The  Son  of  man  is  come  to  seek 
and  to  save  that  which  was  lost." 

VI.   The  Ministry  of  Conservation 201 

"It  is  not  the  will  of  your  Father 
which  is  in  heaven,  that  one  of 
these  .  .  .  should  perish." 

VII.   The  Ministry  of  Cooperation 235 

"  We  are  workers  together  .  .  .  and 
members  one  of  another," 

VIII.  The  Ministry  of  Inspiration 271 

"  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me." 


PERSONAL  FOREWORD 

For  more  than  a  generation  I  have  been 
reading  the  Yale  Lectures  as  the  successive 
volumes  have  appeared,  reading  them  with  an 
ever-growing  profit  and  interest.  On  my  way 
to  be  a  student  in  the  School  of  Theology  I  car- 
ried with  me  to  read  on  the  train  the  lectures  of 
both  Brooks  and  Simpson,  then  recently  pub- 
lished. Through  the  years  since  then  these  and 
other  volumes  have  helped  to  keep  my  ideals 
fresh,  my  standards  from  sagging,  and  my 
vision  of  the  ministry  clear  and  attractive  be- 
fore my  own  eyes.  For  twenty-five  years  I 
have  been  out  of  the  pastorate,  in  positions 
which  by  their  very  nature  tend  to  make  a 
person  official  and  administrative  in  his  atti- 
tude and  spirit.  These  lines,  perhaps  all  too 
personal  for  such  a  place,  are  intended  to  sug- 
gest what  they  cannot  express,  an  undying  and 
increasing  gratitude  to  the  men  and  the  in- 
fluences that  have  helped  to  preserve  for  me,  in 
my  ministry  through  the  years,  "the  vision 
splendid." 

The  gracious  invitation  to  serve  as  Lyman 
Beecher  lecturer  in  this  year  brought  more  than 
ordinary   embarrassment  just  because  of  this 

7 


PERSONAL  FOREWORD 

long  and  devoted  use  of  the  lectures  given  by 
other  men.  What  they  have  said  so  well,  what 
has  soaked  into  me,  what  has  been  absorbed  by 
me  must  surely  reappear  in  every  one  of  these 
chapters.  I  am  entirely  willing  to  have  it  so, 
but  other  men  must  not  be  held  responsible, 
even  though  their  influence  can  be  seen  and 
felt  in  every  page,  an  influence  that  is  large 
and  real,  but  cannot  be  indicated  in  detail.  It 
would  be  easy  to  make  pedantic  display  in  the 
way  of  references,  but  this  would  be  no  more 
attractive  here  than  it  is  in  sermons.  So  this 
broad  and  grateful  acknowledgment  is  set 
down  here  at  the  beginning,  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  a  lifelong  indebtedness  to  multitudes 
of  "men  and  books." 

These  addresses  were  prepared  and  delivered 
in  a  time  of  unparalleled  "storm  and  stress"  in 
the  world,  a  time  in  which  everything  is  thought 
of  as  affected  by  the  unspeakable  war.  Men 
naturally  wonder  what  kind  (^  world  we  shall 
live  in,  what  kind  of  ministry  will  serve  the 
world  and  how  it  will  serve  it,  and  even  what 
sort  of  Christianity  will  exist  when  the  war  is 
over.  The  very  life  of  Christ's  kingdom  seems 
involved  in  this  world  crash.  Men  can  scarcely 
think  or  speak  of  anything  else.  "All  our  talk- 
ing and  thinking  have  become  like  the  open 
page  of  a  monthly  magazine,  with  a  bloody 

8 


PERSONAL  FOREWORD 

smear,  a  thing  of  red  and  black  dragged  across 
it."  Nevertheless,  the  war  is  not  at  all  prom- 
inent in  these  lectures.  It  has  been  my  eager 
desire  to  see  and  my  earnest  endeavor  to 
present  a  ministry  that  might  be  worthy  and 
vital  while  war  lasts  and  when  war  has  passed, 
as  it  will  pass;  to  lay  hold  for  our  ministry  of 
principles  steadfast  and  eternal  even  in  the  day 
when  the  earth  is  rocking  under  our  feet.  I 
dare  not  think  that  I  have  succeeded  as  the 
subject  deserves,  but  in  putting  the  ministry  of 
the  Master  in  its  spirit,  purpose,  and  essence 
under  the  ministry  of  men  in  these  troubled 
days  I  dare  believe  that  I  have  tried  to  do  what 
is  well  for  us  all. 

t  The  wish  to  do  this  explains  all  that  is  said 
and  all  that  is  omitted.  His  ministry  is  con- 
stantly treated  in  these  studies  as  both  an  event 
that  occurred  and  a  principle  that  ever  abides. 
His  life  in  its  deepest  meanings  is  held  to  con- 
tain the  essential  principles  of  all  human  life. 
He  himself  is  regarded  both  as  pattern  and 
power  for  men.  I  desire  the  ministry  of  the 
Master  to  lie  in  power  under,  around,  above, 
and  within  the  ministry  of  the  men  of  our  own 
and  later  days. 

For  the  dear  church  of  which  I  am  a  minister, 
for  my  "brethren  and  companions"  and  for  my- 
self I  make  hearty  but  inadequate  expression  of 


PERSONAL  FOREWORD 

appreciation  of  the  invitation  given  by  Yale 
University  to  attempt  this  service  and  for  the 
generous  hospitaHties  and  gracious  courtesies 
extended  to  me  during  the  dehvery  of  these 
addresses.  Substantially  as  they  were  spoken 
the  lectures  are  now  offered  to  the  larger  world 
in  the  humble  hope  that  they  may  add  at 
least  some  small  amount  to  that  large  and  dis- 
tinguished service  rendered  to  the  church  and 
the  world  through  more  than  two  centuries  by 
"Yale,  the  mother  of  men,"  and  help  to  make 
the  ministry  of  men  in  real  measure  one  in 
spirit  and  purpose  with  the  ministry  of  the 
everliving  Master  of  men. 

Washington,  District  of  Columbia, 

April  twenty-sixth. 

One  thousand  nine  hundred  and  seventeen. 


10 


LECTURE  I 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

"Show  us  the  Father/' 


LECTURE  I 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

We  have  come  up  to  study  and  possibly  to 
write  another  chapter  on  the  work  of  preaching 
and  the  Hfe  of  the  preacher;  to  consider  again 
our  ministry  to  the  world  we  live  in;  to  take 
counsel  together  as  to  our  lives,  our  message, 
and  our  methods;  to  take  another  look  at  our 
task  and  our  resources;  to  refresh  ourselves  in 
fellowship  with  one  another  and  with  our  Elder 
Brother;  to  compare  our  hopes  with  our  ex- 
periences, our  achievements  with  our  ideals;  to 
mingle  as  in  one  family,  younger  brothers  look- 
ing eagerly  forward,  meeting  with  older  brothers 
whose  work  is  partly  done.  It  is  not  an  expe- 
rience wholly  full  of  comfort  to  those  who  are 
no  longer  young.  Coming  to  deliver  a  half 
dozen  addresses  on  preaching  seems  to  one  who 
assumes  to  do  it  somewhat  like  coming  to  a 
day  of  judgment,  where  one  meets  the  deeds 
already  done,  the  noble  plans  abandoned,  neg- 
lected, or  imperfectly  fulfilled;  the  high  ideals 
unrealized  in  practice;  where  the  man  that  is 
faces  the  man  that  meant  to  be  and  wishes  he 
could  have  a  second  probation.    I  suspect  that 

13 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

we  older  men  are  looking  for  our  second  proba- 
tion in  you  younger  ones,  hoping  to  find  in  you 
a  success  that  we  have  missed  in  ourselves.  We 
have  a  hope  that  something  may  be  made  of 
you,  being  caught  young.  And  we  have  a  sin- 
cere desire  to  help  you  get  at  the  beginning  the 
direction,  the  tone  your  ministry  should  keep 
until  its  end. 

Strangely  enough,  I  do  not  find  myself  trou- 
bled by  coming  into  this  noble  succession  so 
late.  It  staggers  and  humbles  me  to  come  into 
it  at  all,  but  it  must  have  been  an  appalling 
task  to  plan  the  first  course  of  lectures  on  this 
foundation.  Everything  had  to  be  said!  But 
now,  as  after-dinner  orators  say,  so  much  has 
been  said,  and  so  well  said,  that  it  can  be  taken 
for  granted.  It  is  not  necessary  to  put  into  one 
brief  series  all  that  could  be  said  upon  the 
general  subject  or  upon  any  portion  of  it.  We 
may  have  the  same  comforting  assurance  in  our 
preaching.  A  preacher  need  not  feel  obliged  to 
say  in  one  sermon  all  that  could  be  said  upon 
chosen  text  or  topic.  We  may  safely  and  wisely 
assume  what  has  been  said  before  us  and  what 
will  be  said  after  us.  There  have  been  and 
there  will  be  other  sermons.  This  reflection  has 
large  incidental  advantages  to  a  congregation. 
So  there  have  been  other  lectures,  and  doubtless 
there  will  be  other  lectures,  as  the  years  pass. 

14 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

"Wherefore  let  us  comfort  one  another   with 
these  words." 

This  consideration,  with  others,  permits  a 
proper  Hmitation  of  our  theme.  The  enlarged 
scope  of  the  modern  ministry  tends  somewhat 
to  confusion.  When  this  Lyman  Beecher  lec- 
tureship was  founded  the  minister  was  distinctly 
preacher  and  pastor  to  a  single  congregation. 
That  was  the  dominant  type.  Upon  that  type 
everything  was  built.  We  have  seen  an  im- 
mense extension  of  the  idea  of  the  ministry, 
until  we  can  no  longer  assume  that  all  students 
in  a  seminary  are  looking  forward  to  the  form  of 
ministry  which  was  once  supreme  and  almost  ex- 
clusive. The  dreams  of  men  are  based  upon 
the  experiences  of  men.  And  it  comes  to  pass 
that  many  young  ministers  are  looking  forward 
to  becoming  teachers  of  theology  or  other  sub- 
jects, social  workers,  reformers,  professional 
evangelists,  editors,  secretaries  of  benevolent 
boards,  administrators  of  religious  affairs  and 
activities — all  of  them  forms  of  life  in  which 
the  ministry  of  service  is  real,  but  in  which 
preaching  may  be  and  often  is  slight  and  occa- 
sional, and  pastoral  functions  entirely  lacking. 
It  is  very  interesting  to  note  the  number  of 
men  sustaining  the  ministerial  relation,  and 
presumably  fulfilling  the  ministerial  function, 
who  are  satisfying  their  call  to  the  ministry  in 

15 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

these  special  ways.  And  it  is  also  interesting 
to  note  the  provision  we  have  made  for  the 
training  of  men  and  the  service  of  men  with 
this  enlarged  conception  of  the  ministry  in 
view.  Compare,  for  example,  the  curriculum 
of  this  institution  when  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
first  spoke  on  this  foundation  with  the  curri- 
culum of  this  year.  Compare  the  Plymouth 
Church  of  1867  with  the  St.  George's  or  Ply- 
mouth Church  of  1917,  and  you  will  see  the 
distance  we  have  come.  Our  provisions  for 
perfecting  the  saints  have  become  very  abun- 
dant. 

Now,  with  all  this  extension  we  may  well 
have  the  fullest  sympathy,  but  in  these  few 
hours  together  our  concern  is  emphatically  with 
the  minister  who  is  preacher  to  a  congregation 
and  pastor  to  a  community.  Other  subjects 
are  interesting,  other  activities  useful,  but  only 
in  a  secondary  and  related  sense  do  they  come 
within  the  scope  of  our  studies  together.  In 
other  words,  we  do  not  propose  to  consider 
everything  ministers  may  do  and  still  fulfill 
their  ministry,  though  that  might  be  interest- 
ing and  valuable.  There  will  be  a  lot  of  true 
things  to  say  after  we  are  through.  It  is 
enough  for  us  to  speak  the  truth  on  this  more 
limited  basis. 

I  choose  this  special  field  with  the  firm  con- 

16 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

viction  that  there  is  no  relation  in  the  world 
which  is  nobler,  happier,  or  more  useful  than 
this  specific  relation.  Knowing  full  well  all  the 
charms  and  attractions,  all  the  possibilities  and 
opportunities  that  lie  in  other  relations  and 
forms  of  service;  being  personally  familiar  with 
more  than  one  of  these  special  forms  of  ac- 
tivity, and  being  deeply  concerned  for  your 
highest  happiness  and  highest  usefulness,  I  can- 
not ask  of  God  anything  better  for  you  through 
long  years  than  such  a  relation,  such  a  ministry, 
in  town  or  country,  in  city  or  village.  I  know 
the  current  talk  upon  the  subject,  but  after  all 
is  said  the  world  has  nothing  finer  in  oppor- 
tunity or  reward  to  offer  to  any  man  than  this 
kind  of  ministry,  in  the  Master's  name,  to  a 
given  community. 

Principal  Selbie  said  lately  to  a  gathering  of 
theological  students  that  what  would  matter  in 
their  future  lives  was  the  work  they  did  in  their 
own  churches,  that  the  work  they  did  outside 
their  churches  would  amount  to  very  little. 

This  will  bring  you  to  the  concrete  question, 
what  kind  of  minister  you  really  intend  and 
plan  to  be.  Preaching  and  being  a  preacher 
may  be  vague  and  indefinite  or  clear  and 
definite.  The  real  greatness  of  the  conception 
must  not  be  lost  either  in  vagueness  or  in  nar- 
rowness.   We  must  save  our  souls  from  little- 

17 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

ness  by  breadth,  and  from  haziness  by  definite- 
ness  Hke  our  Master's. 

I  have  chosen  the  particular  theme,  "Good 
Ministers  of  Jesus  Christ,"  in  order  to  base 
the  whole  theory  and  practice  of  our  ministry 
upon  the  ministry  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  funda- 
mental basis  upon  which  I  rest  all  these  studies 
is  this :  His  ministry  was  both  a  fact  and  a  per- 
petual example,  both  an  event  in  time  and  a 
principle  to  live  by  for  all  time,  a  thing  of 
glory  in  itself  and  a  thing  of  supreme  worth 
forevermore.  It  was  once  and  is  always.  It 
could  not  be  the  event  it  was  without  also  being 
a  principle.  Nor  could  we  get  the  principles 
we  require  except  in  a  fact  like  his  life  and  min- 
istry. Our  ideals  must  root  in  reality.  The 
good  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  ought  as  far  as 
possible  be  a  minister  like  Jesus  Christ.  Make 
all  proper  allowances  for  his  unique  purpose 
and  work,  his  unique  character  and  life,  for  his 
sinlessness  and  his  Lordship,  for  the  manifest 
differences  between  his  ministry  and  ours,  be- 
tween his  life  and  ours,  still  the  discovery  of 
possible  resemblances  in  spirit,  principle,  and 
purpose  is  more  important  than  finding  the 
differences.  What  he  tried  to  do  the  modern 
minister  must  substantially  try  to  do.  What 
he  essentially  was  the  modern  minister  must 
essentially  be.    For  the  keynote  of  our  ministry 

18 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

we  must  use  his  own  most  significant  words: 
"The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like."  Not  that  we 
are  Hke  him  in  sufficient  measure,  but  this  is 
what  we  ought  to  be.  We  do  not  truly  exalt 
him  to  his  true  and  supreme  place  by  giving 
him  a  solitary  and  unrelated  place,  no  matter 
how  high.  We  wrong  ourselves  and  our  min- 
istry by  any  detachment  from  him.  We  honor 
him,  not  by  drawing  away,  but  by  drawing 
near,  not  by  our  differences  from  him,  but  by 
our  likeness  to  him.  The  ministry  is  to  be  in- 
terpreted in  the  light  of  this  supreme  Person 
and  his  ministry.  It  is  not  a  profession  with 
which  we  deal,  but  a  personal  life  having  its 
roots,  its  inspirations  and  its  examples,  its  pur- 
poses, in  another  personal  life.  These  roots  go 
far  past  Liddon,  Beecher,  Simpson,  Storrs,  and 
Spurgeon;  far  deeper  than  the  particular  eccle- 
siasticism  in  which  we  have  our  home;  beyond 
Oxford,  or  Geneva,  or  Boston.  As  men  and 
ministers  we  repeat  Whittier's  words: 

**0,  Lord  and  Master  of  us  all, 
Whate'er  our  name  or  sign, 
We  own  thy  sway,  we  hear  thy  call, 
We  test  our  lives  by  thine." 

And  we  base  our  lives  and  our  ministry  upon 
his.  What  we  shall  build  the  future  only  can 
tell,  but  "other  foundation  can  no  man  lay, 
than  that  is  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ."    We 

X9 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

have  thought  of  him  as  the  founder,  but  not  so 
much  as  the  foundation  of  our  ministry.  Hap- 
pily, you  can  build.  You  are  yet  young.  Your 
ministry  is  not  closing,  but  opening.  Let  us 
take  heed  how  we  build. 

Men  are  wondering,  as  they  have  in  other 
periods,  whether  Christianity  is  a  living  or  a 
spent  force  in  the  world.  The  faith  of  many  is 
in  eclipse.  Many  walk  in  despair  and  darkness. 
They  feel  that  one  world  is  dead,  they  are  not 
sure  that  a  better  has  any  power  to  be  born. 
Into  such  an  era  you  come.  Only  a  ministry 
like  his  can  have  any  message  to  this  mad,  mod- 
ern world.  If  you  come  to  your  preaching  and 
pastoral  service  as  he  did,  clothed  with  the 
power  of  an  endless  life,  then  once  more  the 
heavens  will  open  and  men  will  see  the  angels  of 
God  ascending  and  descending. 

I  do  not  dare  hope  that  I  can  accomplish 
what  lies  in  my  heart  and  desire.  But  I  must 
try  to  make  clear  to  you  the  kind  of  minister 
I  am  hoping  to  be  and  to  see  before  the  end  of 
the  day  comes.  This  personal  basis  of  the  min- 
istry, this  relation  of  it  to  the  ministry  of  Jesus, 
and  this  consciousness  of  him  as  example  and 
fellow,  keep  fresh  a  ministry  which  otherwise 
and  by  its  very  nature  tends  to  become  ad- 
ministrative and  oflBcial.  I  may  not  achieve 
the  portrayal  of  this  ministry  or  accomplish 

20 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

the  radiant  thing  itself,  but  some  time,  some- 
where somebody  will.  In  the  light  of  the  min- 
istry of  the  Master  we  shall  some  time  see  what 
the  ministry  of  the  men  may  be.  And  by  his 
grace  there  may  be  some  standing  here  who 
shall  not  taste  of  death  until  they  see  him 
coming  again  in  new  men  like  unto  him. 

And  now  what  is  the  primary,  outstanding 
feature  of  that  perfect  ministry  upon  which  our 
own  is  to  be  based  .'^  What  was  the  supreme  de- 
mand made  upon  him,  the  supreme  test  applied 
to  him,  the  deepest  question  asked  him.'^  What 
above  everything  else  did  he  try  to  do.'^  We 
shall  find  the  answer  to  our  own  questions  in 
his  experience,  the  light  for  our  lives  in  his  life. 
For  answer,  open  human  history,  religious  his- 
tory, preaching  history,  at  a  particular  page 
upon  which  are  recorded  at  once  the  supreme 
question  and  its  perfect  answer.  A  group  of 
men  is  gathered  about  a  ministering  man  who 
is  saying  many  things  to  them,  many  wise,  im- 
portant, and  necessary  things.  Never  before  or 
since  was  any  man  saying  more  important 
things.  It  was  unequaled  speech,  it  remains 
unequaled.  Into  the  flow  of  this  speech  one  of 
those  men  broke  with  an  insistent  request.  He 
probably  did  not  think  of  the  universal  reach 
of  his  demand;  he  certainly  did  not  know  that 
it  would  get  into  print  and  cut  through  the 

21 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

centuries,  speaking  for  men,  speaking  to  men  in 
all  times  and  lands.  But  this  word  of  Philip  to 
Jesus  walks  at  large  in  the  history  of  humanity 
and  religion.  There  is  no  other  word  that  goes 
deeper.  "Show  us  the  Father  and  it  sufficeth 
us."  That  was  the  ancient  form  of  it,  spoken 
for  a  group  of  earnest  men.  "Show  us  your  God," 
said  a  group  of  modern  Japanese  students  to  a 
modern  missionary.  A  heathen  child  said  to 
the  missionary,  "What  is  God  like?"  A  student 
preparing  for  the  ministry  wrote  me  two  years 
ago:  "I  desire  to  ask  if  you  can  help  me  in  a 
vital  point.  For  some  reason  I  cannot  be  as- 
sured that  there  is  a  living,  personal  God.  I 
think  there  must  be,  but  assurance  is  not  mine. 
Can  you  help  me?  Are  you  sure  that  there  is  a 
God;  and  if  so,  can  you  tell  me  how  I  may  be 
sure?"  If,  now,  a  ministering  man  in  that 
early  group  or  to  any  late  group  or  person 
cannot  do  this  thing  they  ask,  it  does  not  mat- 
ter much  what  else  he  can  do.  He  may  speak 
ever  so  wisely  upon  many  other  vital  themes, 
may  answer  many  other  searching  and  inter- 
esting questions,  but  if  he  cannot  do  this  su- 
preme thing,  his  ministry  fails  at  its  center. 
He  must  reveal  God,  must  make  God  manifest 
and  real,  to  common,  ordinary  men  when  life  is 
ordinary  and  when  it  is  critical.     This  is  the 

test  for  him  and  for  us.    Philip  said,  "Show  us 

22 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

the  Father."  Centuries  afterward,  Lord  Tenny- 
son said,  "I  covet  above  all  things  else  a  fresh 
vision  of  God."  "What  can  you  tell  me  about 
God  quick?"  said  one  soldier  to  another  in  the 
trenches  in  France  in  the  great  war.  He  to 
Philip  and  we  to  Tennyson  and  the  soldier  and 
the  student  must  be  able  to  answer  for  life's 
sake,  for  in  any  age  or  any  country  this  is  hu- 
manity's deepest  need  and  keenest  cry.  There 
are  other  questions,  real  and  urgent,  which 
must  be  answered.  "If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live 
again?"  "What  must  we  do  to  be  saved?" 
"What  is  the  first,  great  commandment?" 
"Who  is  my  neighbor?" — these  and  many 
others  will  crowd  upon  your  ministry  for  an- 
swer. But  no  answer  can  be  given  to  them 
unless  that  deeper  question  about  God  can 
first  be  answered.  They  all  center  in  it.  Woe 
betide  the  ministry  that  wears  itself  out  upon 
the  petty  or  the  secondary  questions  of  life,  and 
woe  betide  the  world  when  the  ministry  is 
dumb  or  helpless  in  the  presence  of  humanity's 
deepest  needs,  or  when  its  ministry  does  not 
know  its  real  center  or  cannot  make  a  real 
revelation.  You  remember  how  Wells  puts  it, 
in  the  words  of  Mr.  Britling:  "Religion  is  the 
first  thing  and  the  last  thing,  and  until  a  man 
has  found  God  and  been  found  by  God,  he 
begins  at  no  beginning,  he  works  to  no  end. 

23 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

He  may  have  his  friendships,  his  partial  loyal- 
ties, his  scraps  of  honor.  But  all  these  things 
fall  into  place,  and  life  falls  into  place,  only 
with  God — God,  who  fights  through  men  against 
Blind  Force  and  Night  and  Non-Existence; 
who  is  the  end,  who  is  the  meaning.  He  is  the 
only  King.  ...  Of  course  I  must  write  about 
him.  I  must  tell  all  my  world  of  him."  Few 
moments  in  history  are  more  critical  than  the 
moment  in  which  Philip  asks  Jesus  the  supreme 
question.  A  form  of  words,  however  careful 
and  sound,  will  not  do  in  reply.  Men  are 
never  saved  by  a  phrase,  however  accurate,  nor 
by  a  verbal  definition,  however  exact.  "There 
must  always  be  a  person  open  to  God  and 
knowing  God,  open  to  men  and  knowing  men, 
to  interpret  between  the  two.  Through  a  per- 
son, through  Jesus  perfectly,  God  makes  his 
way  to  men.'*  Phrase-makers  have  a  standing 
which  they  do  not  deserve.  It  is  fortunate  for 
us  all  that  poor  Philip,  perplexed  and  anxious, 
did  not  fall  into  the  hands  of  one  of  them.  If 
he  had,  this  might  have  been  the  result:  "Is  it 
possible,  Philip,  that  you  do  not  know  yet 
what  I  have  been  so  careful  to  say  over  and 
over.f^  Let  me  tell  it  again,  then,  as  simply  and 
concisely  as  possible.  And  never  forget  it. 
Pass  on  this  statement,  for  it  is  exact:  *The 
Father  is  the  Person,  spiritual,  good,  holy,  wise, 

24 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

powerful  and  loving,  who  creates,  orders,  and 
sustains  all.'  "  This  is  adapted  from  Clarke's 
Outline  of  Christian  Theology,  and  is  about  as 
good  as  any,  but  it  would  have  left  Philip 
pretty  helpless.  And  it  would  not  have  gone 
far  into  human  life  and  experience.  I  said  so 
once  in  Dr.  Clarke's  own  presence,  not  knowing 
that  he  was  present.  He  promptly  and  gra- 
ciously assured  me  that  he  wholly  agreed  with 
me.  Then  he  added:  "Theologians  must  not  be 
required  to  do  more  than  this.  They  can  only 
furnish  the  raw  materials  for  preachers  who 
must  make  verbal  things  living  things."  Preach- 
ers must  do  much  more  than  theologians.  For 
this  sort  of  definition  can  only  be  made  in  terms 
of  life,  this  sort  of  revelation  only  through  per- 
sonality. The  ministry  of  Jesus  and  the  min- 
istry of  others  must  each  make  manifest  and 
make  real  the  personal  God.  Each  must  bring 
us,  not  a  doctrine  of  God,  but  God  himself. 
Each  must  be  a  revealing  ministry,  must  give 
men,  not  an  intellectual  conception  of  God,  but 
a  personal  perception  of  him.  Each  must  be 
the  kind  of  ministry  that  can  make  quick,  clear, 
certain  disclosure  to  Philip,  to  soldier  in  the 
trenches,  to  poet  laureate,  to  dying  man,  to 
inquiring  child,  to  student,  or  to  foreigner  say- 
ing, "Show  us  your  God."  This  is  the  despair 
of  our  ministry;  it  is  also  the  glory  of  it.    For 

25 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

what  Jesus  perfectly  did  in  his  ministry  he  has 
made  possible  in  ours.  He  was  not  helpless,  he 
has  not  left  us  helpless.  He  did  not  fail;  we 
must  not  fail  to  make  God  clear  to  men.  This 
was  the  center  of  his  ministry,  it  is  the  center 
of  ours.  It  is  easier  to  elaborate  the  doctrine 
of  the  divine  nature  or  to  marshal  the  proofs  of 
the  divine  existence.  And  these  tasks  must 
ever  be  performed  by  able  men.  But  the  real 
problem  for  religion  and  life  in  the  hands  of  the 
preacher  is  the  problem  of  making  God  manifest 
as  he  is.  Jesus's  contribution  to  the  world  was 
not  a  proof  of  God's  existence  nor  an  analysis 
of  his  attributes,  but  a  living  disclosure  of  his 
face  and  heart.  His  ministry  was  a  revealing 
ministry,  as  ours  must  be.  It  is  easier  to  dis- 
cuss God  as  a  problem,  but  far  more  useful  to 
reveal  him  as  a  Person,  to  give  him  to  men  as  a 
living  reality,  to  make  him  known  to  actual  life. 
We  can  explain  him  or  we  can  look  into  his  face 
and  cause  other  men  to  do  it. 

And  our  age  is  in  sore  need  of  a  new  vital 
vision  or  sense  of  God.  It  does  not  matter 
much  how  that  statement  is  made.  The  need 
is  always  fundamental,  but  in  our  own  age  it  is 
particularly  acute.  God  is  "in  eclipse."  God 
has  no  practical  significance  for  a  large  part  of 
the  modern  world.  The  prosperous  classes 
think  him  unnecessary,  the  unprosperous  think 

26 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

him  useless.  Scholars  have  eliminated  him 
from  their  thinking,  the  ignorant  from  their 
living.  He  has  faded  out  of  men's  lives.  We 
are,  in  general,  in  the  condition  of  Rugby  boys 
of  Arnold's  time:  "God  was  not  in  all  their 
thoughts."  We  use  large  vague  terms,  like 
immanence  and  transcendence;  or  impersonal 
ones  like  "streams  of  tendency,  not  ourselves, 
making  for  righteousness";  or  we  ignore  him 
altogether.  One  of  the  tendencies  of  the  time, 
in  preaching  and  elsewhere,  has  been  charac- 
terized as  "the  marked  withdrawal  of  emphasis 
from  the  Deity."  Even  the  ministry  has  be- 
come rather  ostentatiously  the  servant  of  the 
people  and  regards  itself  much  less  than  for- 
merly as  the  servant  of  God.  The  average  man 
is  not  a  philosophical  atheist  or  agnostic.  He 
does  not  use  the  exact  terms  of  philosophy  to 
define  or  describe  his  attitude.  He  either 
shrugs  his  shoulders  or  blusters  wildly  as  he 
says,  "I  do  not  know."  God  simply  does  not 
count.  A  keen  student  puts  it  thus:  "Faith  has 
been  hard  hit  in  our  own  generation  by  vague, 
indeterminate,  abstract  ways  of  speaking  of 
God.  Matthew  Arnold's  'stream  of  tendency' 
is  not  easily  grasped  by  ordinary  folk;  still  less 
easily  worshiped.  *The  First  Cause,'  *The  Life 
Force'  are  poor,  attenuated  substitutes  for  the 
God  to  whom  our  grandfathers  prayed."     For 

27 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

all  practical  purposes  of  real  life  these  abstrac- 
tions are  entirely  useless.  They  leave  the 
average  person  hanging  in  mid-air.  Where  they 
leave  the  cultivated  person  it  would  be  hard  to 
say.  Such  terms  as  "immanence"  and  "tran- 
scendence," true  as  they  are,  have  mighty  little 
preaching  value  as  such.  And  it  is  of  the 
preacher  that  we  are  thinking;  the  minister  to 
humanity  as  it  is,  to  all  kinds  of  humanity; 
the  preacher  who  is  the  only  man  to  cure 
present  conditions,  who  is  the  only  man  to 
restore  what  we  may  call  the  intensity  of  hu- 
manity's sense  of  God.  The  preacher  must  do 
this  and  then  guide  the  keen  sense  of  personal 
relations  into  right  ways.  But  often  the  preacher 
himself  is  not  keenly  conscious  of  God,  either 
as  calling  him  into  the  ministry  or  as  giving 
power  and  authority  to  his  ministry.  The  cur- 
rent sense  of  God  is  weak,  vague,  and  largely 
mistaken.  The  half  gods  have  come  and  are 
on  the  throne.  We  have  new  idolatries  and 
polytheisms,  conventional  and  official  beliefs  in 
God,  vast  unconsciousness  of  and  vast  indiffer- 
ence to  him.  And  it  does  not  disturb  us  as 
much  as  we  might  suppose.  A  thoughtful 
English  preacher  declares  that  this  whole  mod- 
ern tragedy  has  come,  first  and  last,  because  of 
the  neglect  or  denial  of  the  Christian  view  of 
God  and  the  world.     "We  were  too  secure  to 

28 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

feel  our  need  of  God."  "Europe  is  without  any 
decisive  and  implacable  sense  of  the  nature  of 
God."  When  the  sense  of  God  is  weak  the 
obligation  to  be  careful  of  his  world  and  his 
children  is  not  likely  to  be  strong  and  effectual. 
M.  Guyau  some  years  ago  pictured  a  world 
from  which  God  had  disappeared  and  in  which 
men  lived  contentedly  without  him.  "We  have 
morbid  sensitiveness  to  pain,  acute  conscious- 
ness of  poverty,  some  sense  of  wrong,  but  a 
dull  sense  of  God."  We  are  much  surer  that  he 
is  good  and  kind  than  our  fathers  were,  but  we 
are  not  haK  so  sure  that  he  is  and  that  he  is 
omriipotent.  It  takes  both  truths  to  make  a 
whole  truth.  Their  value  depends  on  their 
being  held  together.  This  is  the  deepest  "hurt 
of  the  daughter  of  my  people,"  that  modern 
Israel  does  not  know  as  ancient  Israel  did.  The 
old  literature  is  shot  through  with  the  sense  of 
God's  immediate  presence.  God  was  supreme 
in  the  Book  because  he  was  so  supreme  in  life. 
As  Professor  Seth  put  it,  "God  was  an  expe- 
rience, not  simply  an  object."  Of  course  we 
know  how  crude  and  childlike  much  of  that 
early  thinking  was.  We  are  fond  of  pointing 
out  its  crudities.  It  belongs  to  an  early  stage 
of  religious  development  to  say,  "The  word  of 
the  Lord  came,"  "And  God  said,"  and  "The 
Lord    appeared."      We    prefer    to    speak    less 

29 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

plainly.  But  in  getting  rid  of  crudities  men 
often  get  rid  of  realities.  In  refining  speech  to 
fit  our  nicer  philosophies  and  more  careful  theol- 
ogies we  sometimes  destroy  all  its  personal  re- 
vealing value.  The  mighty  evangelists  had  no 
vague  sense  of  God.  They  created  no  vague 
sense.  Jesus  himself  had  a  keen,  acute  sense  of 
God.  His  attitude  is  our  model.  It  was  not 
crude,  though  it  was  altogether  clear  and  defi- 
nite. It  is  for  us  to  pattern  both  faith  and  prac- 
tice upon  the  highest  illustration  and  example. 
He  gives  us  that.  Why  should  we  make  so 
much  of  Jesus's  consciousness  of  God  as  a 
proof  of  his  deity  as  though  that  exhausted  it? 
His  rich  experience  was  far  more  than  an  argu- 
ment. It  suggests  and  reveals  possibilities  in 
other  lives.  Surely,  this  thing  that  meant 
everything  to  him  cannot  have  been  exhausted 
in  him. 

The  good  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  must  be  like 
his  Master  in  this  matter.  In  certain  atmos- 
pheres and  conditions  it  is  easy  both  to  believe 
and  to  understand  the  fact  of  God's  direct 
influence  upon  human  life.  It  seems  to  have 
been  easier  when  the  world  was  younger  and 
the  race  nearer  its  childhood.  It  is  not  at  all 
hard  to  understand  as  we  see  it  in  the  brief 
years  of  Jesus's  ministry.  We  can  easily  be- 
lieve that  God  was  with  him,  that  to  him  the 

30 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

word  of  the  Lord  came,  but  that  God  is  with  us, 
that  the  word  of  the  Lord  comes,  is  another 
matter.  We  can  see  the  process  going  on  as  he 
moved  among  men.  He  worked  it  out.  He 
did  not  give  everybody  health  or  wealth,  but 
he  did  give  them  what  was  far  better,  what  was 
altogether  best.  And  if  one  really  wants  to 
know  how  far  the  life  and  ministry  of  Jesus  are 
imitable,  let  him  try  it.  Modern  Christendom, 
the  modern  ministry,  is  nowhere  near  the  border 
of  fanaticism  yet  in  its  imitation  of  the  Master 
in  this  or  any  other  respect. 

And  the  ministry  cannot  do  the  work  of 
Jesus  for  humanity  by  any  other  way  than  his 
way.  And  unless  it  does  do  his  work,  then  the 
world  is  well  lost.  The  world  is  likely  to  be 
rich  enough  and  smart  enough,  but  a  world 
with  a  vague,  or  dull  or  mistaken  sense  of  God 
cannot  be  a  right  world.  Men  make  vague 
prayers  to  a  vague  God,  and  God  quickly  fades 
when  praying  becomes  colorless  and  impersonal. 
Men  have  a  complacent  view  of  sin  and  a  futile 
notion  of  forgiveness  when  the  sense  of  God  is 
dim.  The  sense  of  personal  worth  and  personal 
relations  gets  weak  under  the  reign  of  the  half 
gods.  The  consciousness  of  immortality  be- 
comes thin  and  doubtful  when  the  sense  of  the 
Eternal  God  grows  feeble.  The  power  of  an 
endless  life  ceases  when  the  sense  of  its  source 

31 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

decays.  Efforts  for  human  welfare  are  easily 
exhausted  unless  the  strength  of  the  everlasting 
arms  is  beneath  them.  Preaching  goes  wrong 
when  there  is  a  sapping  at  the  springs.  It  loses 
its  tone  when  it  fails  to  see  him  face  to  face, 
when  it  is  afraid  to  go  into  his  presence.  Woe 
to  those  prophets  whom  the  Lord  hath  not 
sent,  and  woe  to  the  world  when  being  other- 
wise sent  they  pretend  to  speak  as  prophets. 
The  men  who  speak  by  authority  of  everybody 
or  anybody  but  God,  or  with  authority  about 
everything  except  God,  speak  with  false  or  with 
secondary  authority. 

It  would  be  diflScult  to  name  any  one  out- 
standing feature  of  the  Bible.  That  book  is  so 
opulent  for  the  purposes  of  personal  religion 
and  for  preaching  that  no  one  word  will  ade- 
quately characterize  it.  But  surely  it  makes 
the  clear  impression  upon  anyone  who  reads  it, 
even  in  the  most  casual  way,  that  it  is  the 
record  of  God's  persistent  and  affectionate  ef- 
fort to  reveal  himself  to  human  life,  to  get 
himself  helpfully  into  human  life,  to  become  a 
real  power  in  human  life  and  to  enable  human 
beings  to  know  him.  The  Gaelic  language  is 
said  to  have  fifty  words  for  "darling,"  and  oc- 
casionally one  person  will  apply  them  all  to 
another  person.  The  Bible  fairly  overflows, 
not  with  names  for  God,  not  with  gods,  but 

32 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

with  those  living  terms  that  have  permanent 
rehgious  value  and  lasting  preaching  value.  Of 
course  it  is  such  a  book  as  it  is,  because  it  records 
such  an  effort  on  his  part.  Man's  endeavor  to 
find  God,  to  understand  him,  to  get  on  good 
terms  with  him  does  not  begin  to  equal  God's 
effort  to  find  man,  to  reveal  himself  to  man,  to 
get  into  good  relations  with  man.  A  ministry, 
therefore,  that  sets  out  to  be  a  revealing  min- 
istry, to  make  God  manifest  and  real  to  modern 
life,  puts  itself  in  line  with  God's  own  un- 
changing effort  and  purpose. 

Jesus  Christ  was  the  supreme  endeavor  of 
God  to  make  himself  known.  His  ministry 
was  centered  around  and  based  upon  this  pur- 
pose. He  tried  it  all  the  time,  with  all  sorts  of 
people,  promising  and  unpromising,  people  of 
keen  vision  and  people  of  dull  vision.  He  car- 
ried about  with  him,  he  created  among  men 
what  has  been  called  "an  awareness  of  the 
presence  of  God  in  the  world,  in  every  part  of 
the  world  and  in  the  life  of  man."  Of  course 
we  know  the  difference  between  him  and  our- 
selves, between  his  ministry  and  ours.  We 
never  forget  that.  But  we  too  easily  forget  the 
resemblances  and  identities.  These  I  am  try- 
ing to  emphasize.  The  imitation  of  Christ  has 
special  meaning  here.  And  I  wish  we  might 
see  one  luminous  generation  of  preachers  show- 

33 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

ing  how  far  the  ministry  of  Jesus  is  imitable  in 
its  essential  features.  We  need  not  be  afraid 
either  of  mysticism  or  of  supernaturaHsm.  And 
we  need  not  exaggerate  the  benefits  of  Jesus's 
personal,  earthly  presence  nor  overestimate  the 
achievements  of  his  disciples  while  he  was 
visibly  with  them.  Manifestly  he  expected  us 
to  do  better  than  they  did  both  in  the  appre- 
hension of  truth  and  in  the  application  of  truth. 
God  seemed  tolerably  immediate  when  Jesus 
was  here.  Was  Jesus  wrong  in  the  expectation 
that  God  should  not  seem  less  immediate  and 
near,  but  more  real  after  he  was  gone?  Modern 
Christianity,  the  modern  ministry,  has  imagined 
itself  to  be  deprived  of  some  advantages  that 
belonged  to  the  days  of  the  incarnation.  The 
cry,  "Back  to  Christ,"  has  only  been  partly 
wise.  We  more  than  half  believe  that  we  are  at 
disadvantage  at  a  vital  point.  And  the  dead- 
liest skepticism  of  the  modern  ministry  is  that 
skepticism  which,  not  being  quite  sure  of  God, 
does  not  expect  any  very  mighty  thing  to  hap- 
pen. We  are  as  bad  as  the  Nazarenes  in  the 
synagogue.  And  when  a  man  sometimes  with 
crude  theology,  limited  culture,  and  raw  meth- 
ods, but  with  keen  sense  of  God's  immediate 
presence,  does  some  overwhelming  thing  in  spite 
of  his  limitations,  we  go  to  discussing  him  and 
ask  again,  "Is  not  this  Joseph's  son?"    And  it 

34 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

all  does  happen  when  a  man  takes  a  dead  letter 
up  into  Hving  hands,  changes  the  emphasis  to 
the  personal  terms  and  declares:  "The  Spirit  of 
the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he  hath  anointed 
me."  The  cure  for  ordinariness  is  not  sensa- 
tionalism, but  true  supernaturalism.  There  are 
men  who  appear  to  think  that  a  big  rich  church 
makes  God  practically  unnecessary,  and  that 
God  himself  cannot  do  anything  worth  while  in 
a  small,  poor  one.  In  one  case  material  com- 
placency is  the  result,  in  the  other  case  utter 
depression.  God  is  not  considered  seriously  in 
either  case.  God  is  not  in  the  problem  as  a 
factor,  or  if  in  it  at  all,  only  as  un  unknown 
quantity  or  as  a  conventional  element. 

Many  men  have  felt  and  pointed  out  how  a 
thousand  things  tend  to  blur  the  sense  of  God 
in  a  preacher's  life:  such  as  drudgery,  pain, 
sorrow,  poverty,  prosperity,  age,  illness,  victory 
in  battle  for  reform,  defeat  in  battle  for  reform, 
and  the  desire  to  avoid  dogmatism.  Keeping 
the  sense  of  God  keen  and  fresh,  retaining  the 
power  to  see  "the  vision  splendid,"  enriching 
the  enthusiasm  of  youth  by  the  riper  experience 
of  the  middle  watch  and  still  keeping  the  purple 
glow  upon  it,  preserving  the  thrill  after  twenty- 
five  years'  hard  pounding  on  the  nerves — all 
this  is  difficult  beyond  words.  You  may  fail 
to  do  it  and  may  still  have  a  respectable  and 

35 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

useful,  but  a  wholly  conventional  and  un- 
prophetic,  ministry.  There  will  be  no  burning 
bushes,  no  opening  heavens,  no  live  coals 
touching  speaking  lips,  no  voice  saying,  "This 
is  my  Son." 

Now,  how  can  a  man's  ministry  become  a 
revealing  ministry  in  any  real  sense?  What 
impression  did  Jesus  make  about  God.?^  How 
did  he  do  it.^  What  impression  can  a  modern 
minister  make,  in  line  with  the  ministry  of 
Jesus?  How  can  he  do  it?  This  is  not  asking 
what  statements  can  be  made  about  God,  nor 
what  creed  can  be  elaborated  concerning  him. 
It  is  asking,  with  the  country  church,  the 
metropolitan  church,  the  college,  the  shop,  the 
mine,  the  kindergarten,  the  heathen  world  in 
view,  how  the  minister  of  to-day  can  make  God 
real  to  all  this  human  life.  The  creation  of 
eternal  life  is  the  end,  knowledge  of  God  the 
only  means.  How  can  it  be  done?  If  we  are 
to  get  Jesus's  results,  we  must  surely  follow 
Jesus's  way.  Other  foundation  for  our  min- 
istry can  no  man  lay.  Any  other  foundation 
will  give  way.  A  good  many  men  are  wonder- 
ing whether  Christianity  has  run  its  course, 
whether  it  has  become  outworn,  whether  it  is 
still  to  be  a  force  in  the  world,  whether  the 
ministry  has  any  living  word  to  say.  I  can 
see  but  one  answer  to  all  these  questions  and 

36 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

fears.  The  ministry  of  Jesus  was  a  revealing 
ministry  because  he  knew  God,  because  he  was 
like  God  in  character  and  purpose,  and  because 
he  faithfully  presented  this  God  whom  he  knew, 
whom  he  was  like,  to  the  people  about  him — to 
the  dull  people,  the  narrow  people,  the  argu- 
mentative people,  and  all  the  rest.  And  if  our 
ministry  is  to  be  a  revealing  ministry,  it  must 
be  by  these  same  methods.  The  minister  must 
know  him,  the  minister  must  be  like  him,  the 
minister  must  show  him  as  he  is.  Do  not 
exaggerate,  do  not  put  false  or  extravagant 
meaning  into  these  words.  I  know  the  dangers 
that  lie  in  every  such  statement,  but  I  know 
also  the  far  deadlier  danger  that  lies  in  a  min- 
istry that  does  not  know  him,  is  not  like  him  in 
character,  and  does  not  reveal  him  in  any  true 
and  living  way.  Practical  agnosticism  is  the 
worst  sort  in  the  world  except  pulpit  agnos- 
ticism. A  ministry  afraid  of  the  supreme  ven- 
ture is  a  poor,  futile  thing  in  the  world's  life. 

Now,  I  think  by  the  aid  of  three  questions  it 
will  be  possible  to  set  this  out  clearly: 

Whom  do  you  know  best.^ 

Whom  are  you  most  like? 

Whom  do  you  most  clearly  and  constantly 
show  to  the  world? 

You  know  what  the  answer  would  be  if  we 

were  to  ask  that  other  Minister  these  three 

37 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

questions.  And  we  are  resting  our  whole  theory 
of  the  ministry  upon  his.  We  are  trying  to 
get  our  ministry  as  close  to  his  as  we  can. 
Somehow  we  seem  to  have  set  up  a  false  dif- 
ference between  him  and  ourselves.  Perhaps  we 
did  it  in  the  interest  of  a  doctrine  or  a  rever- 
ence. Then  let  us  hold  fast  what  we  have 
gained  by  that  process  and  see  what  we  can 
find  in  the  way  of  identity  between  him  and 
us.  Some  of  his  words  scare  us,  because  we 
could  not  possibly  apply  them  to  ourselves, 
though  deep  down  in  our  hearts  we  are  sure 
we  ought  to  be  able  to  do  so.  The  chasm  be- 
tween Jesus  and  us  is  not  so  good  a  thing  that 
we  should  exert  ourselves  either  to  preserve  or 
deepen  it.  Not  many  ministries  have  been 
spoiled  by  being  too  much  like  his.  The  world 
has  not  had  too  many  men  like  him  in  character 
and  purpose. 

Now,  we  know  what  he  would  say  to  these 
three  questions.  They  would  not  sound  com- 
monplace or  extravagant  to  him.  I  think  they 
would  seem  to  him  to  go  to  the  very  heart  of 
his  ministry,  as  they  do  to  ours.  Let  us  abandon 
all  this  hypothetical  reasoning.  Let  us  take  the 
ifs  and  subjunctives  out  of  our  talk  about 
Jesus.  Repeat  your  questions,  all  three  of 
them,  to  him,  and  every  time  the  answer  will 
be  the  same.    Whom  do  you  know  best.^^    God, 

38 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

Whom  are  you  most  like?  God.  Whom  are 
you  trying  to  show  to  men?  God.  The  words 
can  be  calmly  written  and  quietly  spoken,  but 
they  tell  the  story  of  the  finest  adventure  of 
heaven  and  earth.  What  lies  in  them  walks  up 
and  down  through  universal  spaces,  through  life 
of  God,  through  ministry  of  Jesus,  and  through 
humanity's  wreck  and  its  redemption. 

Whom  do  you  know  best?  The  Bible  is  a 
book  full  of  personal  relations.  Religion  is  a 
matter  of  personal  relations  much  more  than  of 
personal  opinions.  The  ministry  is  the  most 
personal  thing  in  the  universe,  the  ministry  of 
persons  to  persons  with  the  chief  Person  as  its 
center.  If  you  were  before  a  conference  or  a 
council,  you  would  be  asked  what  you  know, 
and  that  would  be  well.  And  you  might  easily 
know  one  subject  much  better  than  others. 
You  may  have  specialized  or  majored,  as  the 
modern  term  is,  in  history  or  Hebrew,  in 
sociology  or  Greek.  Such  knowledge  is  im- 
perative. Ignorance  does  not  increase  even  a 
minister's  efficiency.  But  there  is  a  funda- 
mental danger  here.  Teachers  are  not  pri- 
marily teachers  of  subjects,  even  of  advanced 
subjects.  They  are  primarily  teachers  of  per- 
sons. Preachers  are  not  fundamentally  special- 
ists in  subjects,  but  in  personalities.  Have  you, 
therefore,  specialized,  or  majored,  in  the  God  of 

39 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  so  that  you  know  him 
better  than  you  know  any  other  person  or  any 
subject  at  all?  Or  have  you  pushed  the  mean- 
ing out  of  all  those  rich  personal  terms  there  in 
the  Bible,  the  terms  those  earlier  men  used? 
Do  you  think  those  earlier  men,  less  carefully 
trained,  were  somewhat  extravagant,  or  mys- 
tical, or  figurative  in  these  statements  about 
their  personal  relations?  Maybe  they  knew 
some  one  we  do  not  know.  Maybe  our  knowl- 
edge is  thin  where  theirs  was  rich,  and  our  lives 
shallow  where  theirs  were  deep  and  abundant. 
They  said  such  things  as  this:  "I  know  him." 
"I  determined  not  to  know  anything  but  him." 
Have  we  a  knowledge,  an  acquaintance  that 
matches  that?  Or  does  it  seem  like  religious 
extravagance  to  us,  or  the  special  privilege  of 
men  who  lived  in  an  earlier  day?  What  would 
you  say  to  this  paragraph  from  a  letter  of 
Phillips  Brooks,  written  in  1891?  He  was  an- 
swering a  young  clergyman  who  had  in  all 
earnestness  and  sincerity  asked  the  secret  of 
his  life.  Among  other  things  Brooks  said:  "All 
experience  comes  to  be  but  more  and  more  the 
pressure  of  his  life  on  ours.  It  cannot  come  by 
one  flash  of  light  or  one  great  convulsive  event. 
It  comes  without  haste  and  without  rest  in 
this  perpetual  living  of  our  life.  I  cannot  tell 
you  how  personal  this  grows  to  me.     He  is 

40 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

here.  He  knows  me  and  I  know  him.  It  is  no 
figure  of  speech.  It  is  the  realest  thing  in  the 
world.  And  every  day  makes  it  realler.  And 
one  wonders  with  delight  what  it  will  grow  to 
as  the  years  go  on."  And  what  will  you  make 
of  the  story  of  Horace  Bushnell?  A  friend  one 
day  said  to  him,  "Doctor  Bushnell,  I  think 
when  the  angel  nearest  the  throne  sees  you 
coming  he  will  say  to  the  Master,  *There  comes 
a  man  you  know.'  "  And  the  great  old  man 
replied,  "I  trust  so,  and  I  am  sure  I  shall  know 
him."  Why  multiply  words .f^  Saint  Paul, 
PhilUps  Brooks,  and  Horace  Bushnell  would 
hardly  be  called  fanatics.  It  must  be  that  they 
spoke  the  truth.  You  can  ask  any  one  of  them 
whom  he  knew  best  and  get  that  same  answer. 
That  gave  them  their  right  to  speak  to  men. 
For,  really,  unless  we  and  other  ministers  have 
this  supreme  acquaintance  it  does  not  matter 
much  what  else  we  have.  Unless  we  know 
God  in  Christ  better  than  we  know  any  one 
else  or  anything  else  we  are  rattling  brass  and 
clanging  cymbals.  It  does  not  answer  just  to 
know  about  Him.  An  acquaintance  with  a 
preposition  like  that  in  it  is  not  personal 
enough  for  preaching  purposes. 

And  take  the  second  question:  Whom  are 
you  most  like?  Whom  do  you  most  resemble 
in  your  character,  your  traits,  your  qualities, 

41 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

your  loves  and  hates,  your  moral  features? 
There  is  an  old  psalm  that  we  always  use  at 
funerals  as  if  it  were  only  good  for  dead  men 
to  be  buried  with,  when  it  is  really  one  of  the 
best  in  the  whole  collection  to  live  with.  In 
the  older  version  there  is  a  fascinating  word  at 
the  end  of  it — "Let  the  beauty  of  the  Lord  our 
God  be  upon  us."  Think  of  having  that  hap- 
pen to  people  like  us!  Of  course  we  expect  the 
work  of  our  hands  to  be  established.  There  is 
no  mysticism  in  praying  for  that.  That  is  just 
good,  hard  practical  sense.  Even  a  minister 
with  a  good  business  head,  capable  of  being  a 
plain,  infallible  business  man,  could  pray  for  a 
thing  as  reasonable  as  that.  But  that  other 
prayer  for  the  beauty  of  the  Lord  to  be  upon 
us,  that  must  be  an  extravagant  figure  of 
speech.  Some  time,  of  course,  if  we  are  good, 
we  hope  to  "see  the  King  in  his  beauty,"  but 
to  expect  to  have  the  beauty  of  the  Lord  upon 
us,  so  that  in  us  it  might  be  seen,  that  is  too 
much  for  us.  Of  course  we  are  now  the  sons  of 
God,  but  that  means  only  the  doctrinal,  theo- 
logical sons  of  God,  or  his  sons  for  doctrinal 
purposes.  In  some  far  future  we  shall  be  like 
him,  but,  of  course,  not  now.  Let  us  be  sen- 
sible. Of  course  also  "We  all  mirror  the  glory 
of  the  Lord  with  face  unveiled,  and  so  are 
being  transformed  into  the  same  likeness  as 

42 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

himself,  passing  from  one  glory  to  another — 
for  this  comes  of  the  Lord  of  the  Spirit";  but 
this  is  a  figure  of  speech,  the  sentence  not 
being  easy  to  translate  clearly,  and  must  not 
be  forced  to  go  on  all  fours.  Nevertheless,  as 
*T  hold  this  ministry,  including  this  figure,  by 
God's  mercy  to  me,  I  will  not  lose  heart  in  it." 
There  are  veils  enough  upon  the  hearts  of  peo- 
ple. We  do  not  need  to  wear  so  many  upon 
our  faces  and  characters.  The  beauty  of  the 
Lord,  if  it  is  really  upon  us,  need  not  be  hidden 
or  dimmed  like  the  lights  on  an  automobile.  If 
you  have  it,  the  world  will  be  glad,  unless  you 
are  self-conscious  and  proud  about  it.  And 
that  will  first  conceal  and  then  destroy  it.  If 
you  have  it  not,  it  does  not  matter  much  what 
else  you  have.  Unless  you  are  more  like  him 
than  anyone  else  in  the  world — in  character,  in 
qualities,  in  life,  in  spirit — it  does  not  matter 
much  whom  you  are  like. 

A  lad  was  asking  a  man  about  the  father  of 
them  both.  The  man  was  trying  to  tell  the  lad 
what  kind  of  man  their  father  had  been.  He 
piled  up  the  noble  adjectives,  all  of  them  true, 
in  the  effort  to  make  the  boy  see.  It  was 
sorry  and  disappointing.  It  is  not  easy  to  con- 
struct a  personality  out  of  adjectives  or  attri- 
butes. At  last  the  lad  broke  in  with  this  burning 
question,  "Are  you  like  him.?"    And  the  older 

43 


GCX)D  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

one  bowed  his  head  and  replied,  "Friends  tell 
me  I  am  my  father  over  again."  And  hu- 
manity is  so  full  of  younger  brothers  like  this, 
like  Philip.  And  humanity's  way  to  God  is  so 
hard.  It  is  so  hard  to  get  him  clearly  before 
the  mind.  You  may  pile  up  the  adjectives,  all 
of  them  true,  but  are  you  like  him?  Is  his 
beauty  upon  you.f^  Do  you  bear  his  image,  so 
that  your  resemblance  makes  humanity's  way  to 
him  easier  and  more  sure.f^  Do  men  find  it 
easier  to  believe  in  God  and  understand  him 
because  they  know  you.'^  Have  you  gone  to 
the  practical,  personal  depths  or  only  to  the 
homiletic  depth  of  the  words,  "He  that  hath 
seen  me"? 

Whom,  then,  do  you  know  best?  Whom  are 
you  most  like? 

Finally,  for  to-day,  whom  do  you  most  faith- 
fully present  to  the  world,  to  your  world?  Of 
whom  do  you  or  will  you  make  your  world 
aware  in  the  deepest  sense?  This  brings  us 
straight  to  the  question  of  the  kind  of  God  we 
know,  the  kind  of  God  we  are  like,  and  the 
kind  of  God  we  shall  preach.  The  difficulty  is 
very  great.  It  is  very  great  for  preaching.  It 
is  the  double  difficulty  "of  making  a  historic 
personality  real"  and  making  an  invisible  per- 
sonality manifest.  How  can  you  see  him? 
How  can  you  show  him?     That  is  the  local, 

44 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

personal  problem.  It  is  the  world  problem  as 
well.  The  missionary  problem  at  last  is  the 
problem  of  making  God  real  to  the  world.  The 
world's  hunger  and  need  are  shown  by  the 
gods  and  half  gods  it  has  created  and  set  up. 
Our  problem  is  not  the  small  problem  of  a  God 
for  a  small  parish,  but  the  problem  of  a  God 
for  all  mankind.  The  real  struggle  of  Chris- 
tianity is  yet  to  come,  not  over.  Christianity 
cannot  conquer  unconquered  India,  China, 
Japan,  and  Africa  except  with  Christianity's 
God,  the  God  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  am  speaking 
all  the  time  as  a  preacher,  and  as  such  I  express 
my  conviction  that  for  our  purposes  and  uses 
we  do  not  come  best  to  God  through  nature  or 
through  man,  but  through  Jesus  Christ,  for  that 
is  the  way  he  best  came  to  us.  Through  ac- 
quaintance with  Christ  we  come  to  know  what 
God  is  like.  This  is  the  method  of  knowing 
him.  This  is  the  method  of  presenting  him. 
Too  long,  too  much,  has  Jesus  been  regarded 
and  preached  as  though  he  were  a  protection 
from  God,  rather  than  the  revelation  of  God. 
We  have  come  to  a  good  day  for  preaching,  a 
day  in  which  we  can  preach  the  truth,  that 
God  is  Christlike.  "He  revealed  perfectly  be- 
cause he  was  what  he  revealed."  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  had  his  gospel  and  his  ministry  saved 
one  day  in  his  early  manhood  in  Indiana  by 

45 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

the  flashing  discovery  that  he  "did  not  need 
to  beheve  anything  about  God  that  Jesus 
Christ  had  not  taught  and  shown,  and  that  he 
could  believe  and  preach  everything  that  Jesus 
Christ  had  revealed."  There  are  gods  that 
cannot  be  preached  or  understood  either  by 
preacher  or  hearer,  but  it  renders  a  preacher 
simply  imperial  to  be  able  to  say  out  of  per- 
sonal acquaintance  and  personal  resemblance, 
"God  is  like  Jesus  Christ."  The  glorious  gospel 
of  the  blessed  God  in  this  way  gets  meaning 
and  beauty  and  glory,  gets  into  those  regions 
where  common  men  and  women  can  lay  hold 
of  it.  Personality  is  hard  to  understand  and 
define,  but  a  Person  like  this  can  be  under- 
stood. It  does  not  seem  strange  that  such  a 
God  should  meet  all  the  ethical,  religious,  per- 
sonal needs  of  men.  Praying  to  such  a  God 
ceases,  to  be  vague  and  indefinite.  Indeed,  we 
can  see  how  the  impulse  to  ask  for  the  things 
we  ought  to  ask  can  easily  come  from  such  a 
Person.  The  personal  terms  in  Old  and  New 
Testament  become  luminous  when  you  think  of 
knowing,  of  resembling,  and  of  preaching  such  a 
God  as  this.  Here  is  where  Lord  Tennyson 
must  get  his  fresh  vision.  This  is  the  quick, 
sure  answer  to  the  soldier  in  the  trenches.  This 
is  the  reply  to  the  Japanese  and  American 
students.    This  is  the  word  to  the  child,  to 

46 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

the  woman,  to   the  man:  "God   is   like   Jesus 
Christ." 

The  foreign  missionary  movement  has  created 
a  new  problem,  a  kind  of  rivalry  in  deities.  The 
next  half  century  in  which  you  will  have  your 
ministry  will  be  full  of  amazing  interest  and 
importance  because  of  this.  If  there  were  no 
other  nearer  occasion  for  it,  we  should  be 
obliged  to  redefine  our  God  for  preaching  pur- 
poses in  view  of  what  we  must  do  in  the  non- 
Christian  world  where  nothing  can  be  taken  for 
granted.  And  I  do  not  hesitate  to  declare  my 
glad  conviction  that  God  interpreted  in  the 
terms  of  the  life  and  character  of  Jesus  Christ 
is  our  suflScient  disclosure  both  at  home  and 
abroad.  Anywhere,  in  any  land,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  any  other  or  all  other  gods,  we  can  rest 
our  case  on  the  God  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
To  know  him  is  life  eternal,  to  be  like  him  is 
life  transfigured,  to  preach  him  is  life  exalted 
and  glorified.  You  do  not  fully  know  it,  you 
young  brethren,  but  you  ought  to  be  so  glad  to 
begin  your  preaching  just  now  that  together 
and  alone  you  would  sing  a  psalm  of  thanks- 
giving. Old  heads  are  weary  and  old  hearts  are 
faint;  the  dust  is  on  many  lives  and  the  hands 
of  many  hang  down,  but  men  with  a  God  like 
this  can  renew  the  world  in  righteousness  and 
beauty.     The  doctrine  of  the  deity  of  Christ 

47 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

has  not  been  pushed  through  to  its  full  reli- 
gious value.  It  has  been  a  doctrine  to  expound, 
a  theorem  to  demonstrate,  a  test  of  orthodoxy,  a 
shibboleth  to  pronounce,  but  it  has  not  been 
used  for  what  it  is  worth  in  the  religious  life. 
But  the  "acknowledgment  of  God  in  Christ," 
as  Browning  puts  it,  lifts  preaching  far  above 
the  exposition  of  a  doctrine.  It  brings  us 
preachers  into  the  fellowship  of  that  other  One 
upon  whose  preaching  ours  is  based.  He  did 
not  lecture  about  God  to  the  trained  and 
capable.  He  used  what  he  knew  of  God  in  that 
perfect  fashion  that  makes  preaching  a  revela- 
tion. It  made  his  preaching  a  delight.  Mod- 
ern preachers  have  been  known  to  think  more 
highly  of  Jesus  Christ  than  of  the  God  of  Jesus 
Christ,  to  regard  Jesus  as  more  available  and 
less  diflScult  for  preaching  purposes.  All  this 
seems  to  me  to  be  off  the  center.  For  us,  as 
for  him,  the  glory  of  our  preaching  is  the  God 
he  revealed  and  declared.  The  God  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  not  a  pulpit  embarrassment,  nor  a 
preaching  difficulty.  For  Jesus  and  for  us  God 
was  and  is  the  strength,  the  warmth,  the  life 
of  what  he  had  and  we  have  to  say  and  show 
to  men.  His  ministry  was  set  far  above  all 
other  because  he  had  this  God  to  reveal  to 
men.  Everything  centers  in  that.  He  knew 
him,  he  was  like  him,  he  revealed  him.     That 

48 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REVELATION 

put  him  on  the  shining  heights  and  in  the  Hfe 
of  the  world.  There  can  be  no  better  thing  for 
you.  Of  old  it  was  beheved  that  no  one  could 
see  God  and  live.  And  a  man  in  that  olden 
time,  after  a  night  of  wrestling,  called  a  place 
Peniel,  because  he  had  seen  God  face  to  face 
and  yet  his  life  was  preserved.  We  are  in  that 
better  day  which  Jesus  brought.  Now  we  know 
that  no  one  can  live,  no  life  can  be  preserved, 
without  the  vision  of  the  face  of  God. 


49 


LECTURE  II 
THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

"He  shall  save  his  people  from  their  sins." 


LECTURE  II 
THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

The  subject  for  to-day  is  "The  Ministry  of 
Redemption."  Anyone  who  prefers  to  speak  of 
the  ministry  of  salvation  may  do  so  without 
objection  from  me.  We  shall  be  thinking  of 
the  same  thing  and  the  same  Person,  and  not 
be  distracted  by  verbal  refinements.  Under 
either  name  lies  untold  wealth  for  the  preacher, 
wealth  that  cannot  be  found  anywhere  else. 
This  is  emphatically  the  preacher's  topic.  We 
are  thinking  of  the  preacher,  not  the  writer, 
nor  the  teacher,  nor  the  administrator.  For 
Christianity  is  a  preacher's  religion,  because  it 
is,  above  all  things  else,  a  religion  of  redemp- 
tion and  because  a  preacher  can  bring  it  directly 
to  all  human  life. 

I  have  no  wish  to  conceal  or  delay  making 
plain  my  purpose  at  this  point.  This  subject 
contains  the  heart  of  what  I  am  trying  to  say 
in  all  these  days.  The  one  word  which  I  most 
desire  to  emphasize  is  the  word  "redemption"; 
the  one  Person  whom  I  most  eagerly  desire  to 
make  clear  is  the  redeeming  God.  We  have 
taken  the  edge  off  of  the  redemptive  idea  in 

53 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

Christianity,  just  as  we  have  taken  the  redemp- 
tive glow  from  our  conception  of  revelation.  If 
that  edge  be  gone  or  be  dull,  Christianity  has 
no  cutting  edge  left.  God  is  not  just  a  good, 
powerful,  benevolent  God,  a  God  better  than  all 
the  gods  of  the  nations,  a  generally  satisfactory 
God.  The  God  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  God  of 
the  redemption  of  the  life  of  mankind.  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  divine  Saviour  or  Redeemer  of 
men.  The  Bible  is  the  record  of  the  divine, 
redemptive  movement  in  the  world.  The 
church  is  the  society  of  redemption.  In  Chris- 
tianity's view  men  and  the  world  are  the  sub- 
jects of  redemption.  The  ministry  is  the 
divinely  appointed  agency  of  redemption.  Its 
message  is  the  message  of  redemption.  I  put 
it  all  out  thus,  in  full  view,  at  the  start,  knowing 
that  some  will  think  it  narrow  and  crass,  fully 
aware  of  the  reaction  against  a  crude,  raw  evan- 
gelicalism, but  fully  believing  that  the  redemp- 
tive note  is  the  dominant  note  in  the  life  and 
work  of  Jesus,  and  believing  that  nothing  can 
save  Christianity  in  its  breadth  and  beauty,  or 
make  modern  Christianity  triumphant  in  the 
world,  except  a  reemphasis  of  this  note.  Pardon 
these  personal  words,  but  I  must  interpret  the 
ministry  as  it  appears  to  me  in  the  light  of 
human  need  and  Christ's  purpose.  I  must 
make  my  testimony  and  leave  my  testimony, 

54 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

that  good  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ  will  be 
ministers  of  redemption.  For  the  preacher  as 
for  Jesus,  the  center  of  revelation  is  not  God 
creating  or  ruling,  but  God  redeeming.  To  this 
dominant  note  other  notes  must  conform.  To 
this  end  other  conceptions  must  lead,  and  all 
agencies  and  methods  be  adapted.  From  this 
supreme  purpose  other  purposes  must  follow. 
My  father,  through  many  years,  closed  every 
prayer  at  family  altar  or  in  public  place,  and 
every  blessing  asked  upon  his  simple  meals, 
with  the  words,  "And  this  we  ask  for  the  dear 
Redeemer's  sake."  With  that  tender  memory 
upon  me  I  speak  these  words  as  he  made  his 
prayers,  "for  the  dear  Redeemer's  sake." 

This  conception  of  God  as  the  God  of  re- 
demption gives  us  a  true  center  for  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  life  and  character  of  God.  It 
gives  God  preaching  value,  human  value,  rather 
than  simply  theological  or  philosophical  value. 
With  this  in  mind  you  can  understand  how  the 
redeeming  God  could  and  would  become  in- 
carnate, and  would  at  last  submit  to  death  on 
the  cross.  The  purpose  of  redemption  on  his 
part  explains  his  coming  into  and  his  methods 
in  the  world.  He  revealed  himself  for  redemp- 
tion's sake.  He  spoke  and  acted,  he  lived  and 
died  for  the  world.  Many  men  have  missed 
the  point  of  revelation  both  in  its  essence  and 

55 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

its  purpose.  Many  have  not  seen  beyond  the 
reveaHng  Redeemer  to  the  God  of  redemption 
whom  he  came  to  reveal.  Men  have  found  it 
easier  to  preach  the  Saviour  than  to  preach  the 
Saviour's  God,  to  preach  Jesus  Christ  than  the 
God  of  Jesus  Christ.  This  ought  not  to  be. 
God  is  the  supreme  value  here,  the  supreme 
value  to  human  life.  And  you  can  get  him  for 
preaching  use  by  interpreting  and  knowing  him 
as  the  God  of  redemption. 

This  conception  gives  us  a  true  and  working 
basis  for  the  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  our 
chief  book.  The  Bible  has  been  for  some  years 
in  tolerably  bad  plight.  One  after  another, 
science,  historical  criticism,  literary  criticism, 
comparative  religion  have  tended  to  disturb 
the  traditional  standing  of  the  Bible.  Preachers 
either  shut  their  eyes  and  continued  the  old- 
fashioned  use  of  it  with  wrath  at  the  new 
forces,  or  swung  clear  over  to  the  new  basis 
with  a  brave  show  of  faith  which  they  did  not 
feel,  or  got  a  clear  vision  of  the  real  character 
of  the  Bible  which  set  it  in  new  strength  and 
power  for  preaching  purposes.  It  is  and  must 
be  the  preacher's  book.  With  the  Bible  gone, 
or  doubted,  or  discredited  or  misunderstood, 
preaching  will  always  be  in  bad  case.  Now 
nobody  wants  anything  except  truth  and  reality 
here  or  anywhere;  and  nobody  cares  to  save 

56 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

preaching  for  its  own  sake,  but  the  human  race 
is  interested  in  the  fate  of  the  Scriptures  and  in 
the  fate  of  preaching,  because  the  race  is  in- 
terested in  redemption.  Maybe  the  race  does 
not  know  it,  but  it  is  interested  nevertheless, 
and  vitally  so. 

Some  thirty-five  years  ago  a  student  of 
theology  was  in  grave  danger  of  losing  both 
his  personal  faith  and  his  possible  message.  He 
had  been  brought  up  on  certain  theories  of  the 
Bible  which  seemed  no  longer  true,  tenable,  or 
valuable,  and  in  letting  them  go  he  could  not 
see  how  he  could  hold  to  the  Bible  itself.  Many 
things  seem  to  be  real  parts  of  our  faith  when 
actually  they  are  only  associated  with  it.  In 
that  crisis  two  influences  came  into  that  stu- 
dent's life.  One  of  them  was  Phillips  Brooks, 
the  other  Alexander  Balmain  Bruce.  The  first 
gave  relief  from  a  mechanical  theory  of  the 
origin  of  the  Bible  by  showing  how  it  sprang 
out  of  life,  the  life  of  the  redemptive  God  and 
the  life  of  man  whose  redemption  God  sought. 
The  other  gave  relief  at  a  half  dozen  points  by 
showing  what  is  now  a  commonplace,  that  the 
contents  of  the  Bible  "chiefly  relate  to  a  pur- 
pose of  grace,  and  its  great  watchword  is  re- 
demption." The  first  answered  the  question 
how  there  came  to  be  a  Bible,  the  second  what 
it  supremely  contained.     Many  mysteries  re- 

67 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

mained  and  remain,  but  a  living  faith  can  exist 
in  the  face  of  some  very  perplexing  mysteries. 
So  for  many  years  the  Bible  has  been  to  that 
student  a  book  of  life  and  a  book  of  redemp- 
tion. Inspiration  has  been  raised  in  importance 
by  reason  of  its  redemptive  purpose. 

If,  now,  you  ask  how  there  happens  to  be  a 
Bible,  and  how  it  happens  to  be  the  kind  of 
book  it  is,  you  can  find  an  answer  in  the  life 
out  of  which  it  came,  the  life  of  God  in  the 
world,  the  life  of  man  in  the  world,  though  not 
the  total  life  of  either.  For  it  is  not  a  full  his- 
tory of  the  universe,  nor  a  detailed  history  of 
humanity.  The  thing  that  lies  behind  it,  that 
makes  it  what  it  is,  is  the  movement  of  God  in 
the  world  for  man's  redemption.  This  move- 
ment is  the  most  important  particular  thing 
that  has  happened  in  our  race.  The  literature 
that  records  and  interprets  it  is  for  this  reason 
the  most  important  literature  in  the  world. 
The  movement  gives  existence,  character,  tone, 
and  edge  to  the  literature.  Many  things  have 
tended  through  the  centuries  to  take  this  em- 
phasis off  the  literature.  We  shall  deserve  well 
of  our  own  and  other  ages  if  we  can  make 
clear  and  sharp  the  church's  sense  of  the  Bible 
as  the  literature  of  redemption.  It  is  not  a 
literature  which  records  a  revelation  of  God  in 
general,  nor  does  it  lay  equal  emphasis  upon 

58 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

everything  mentioned  in  its  pages.  It  is 
chiefly,  supremely,  rapturously  for  us  sinners, 
and  gloriously  for  us  preachers  a  record  of  the 
revelation  of  God  as  man's  Redeemer  and 
Saviour.  The  stream  runs  ever  in  one  direction. 
The  gropings  and  searchings  of  lost  humanity 
after  God  make  the  finest  chapters  in  human 
history,  but  this  is  not  fundamentally  that 
record.  This  is  the  divine  story  of  the  divine 
searching  after  men.  Jesus  does  not  appear  as 
a  discovery,  but  as  a  disclosure,  a  gift,  a  per- 
fect word,  a  revelation  of  that  seeking,  saving 
God  who  is  ever  trying  to  redeem  his  children 
from  evil  and  its  destruction.  The  Bible  is  not, 
as  Moulton  has  called  it,  above  all  things,  an 
interesting  literature.  It  is,  above  all  things 
else,  a  redemptive  literature.  All  its  contents, 
all  its  characteristics,  its  inclusions  and  its 
omissions  are  conditioned  by  this  supreme  fact. 
It  contains  lofty  doctrines,  it  teaches  noble 
ethics,  it  uses  every  good  literary  form,  but  in 
the  heart  of  it  "it  is  the  record  of  redeeming 
love  and  purpose  culminating  in  Jesus  Christ." 
Mr.  Henry  James  says  in  a  lecture  on  Balzac: 
"The  fault  in  the  artist  which  amounts  most 
completely  to  a  failure  of  dignity  is  the  absence 
of  saturation  with  his  idea.  When  saturation 
fails,  no  other  real  presence  avails,  as  when,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  operates,  no  failure  of  method 

59 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

fatally  interferes."  There  is  no  such  absence  of 
'^saturation  with  the  idea"  in  the  Bible.  The 
Book  is  full  of  its  idea  and  was  written  because 
of  that  idea.  One  night  many  years  ago  Wen- 
dell Phillips  delivered  a  magnificent  oration, 
magnificent  even  for  him  at  his  best.  At  its 
close  the  editor  of  a  powerful  newspaper  said  to 
him,  "Mr.  Phillips,  I  wish  to  publish  this  ad- 
dress, and  will  do  so  if  you  will  leave  off  the 
last  paragraph."  And  all  the  blue  blood  in  the 
orator's  veins  boiled  as  he  answered:  "Leave 
off  the  last  paragraph  .^^  I  wrote  the  whole 
speech  just  to  say  that."  May  we  not  say  of 
our  Book,  that  the  whole  of  it  was  written  just 
to  show  the  person  of  the  Redeemer  and  to  say 
the  word  Redemption.'^  The  great  figure  in  it 
is  the  figure  of  the  Redeemer,  the  supreme  word 
the  word  of  salvation,  the  holiest  symbol  the 
cross,  the  living  stream  the  river  of  the  water 
of  life,  life  redeemed  and  perfected  in  Christ. 
That  was  what  Bruce  said  was  the  "Chief  End 
of  Revelation."  That  must  have  been  in  Saint 
Paul's  thought  when  he  wrote  to  the  Corin- 
thians: "I  determined  not  to  know  anything 
among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  cruci- 
fied." Think  of  writing  that  to  the  Corinthians 
without  even  wondering  whether  they  would 
stand  it  or  stand  for  it! 

I  quote  three  statements  bearing  upon  this 

60 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

matter.  Dr.  James  Denney  says:  "The  Bible 
has  an  infalHbility  not  of  information  about 
everything,  not  even  of  historical  accuracy,  but 
of  saving  power.  When  a  man  submits  his 
mind  to  the  Spirit  which  is  in  it,  it  never  mis- 
leads him  about  the  way  of  salvation.  It  brings 
him  infallibly  to  that  knowledge  of  God  in  his 
judgment  and  mercy  which  is  eternal  life."  The 
words  of  Robertson  Smith  are  like  unto  these, 
and  these  words  should  have  been  remembered 
when  other  words  were  being  used  against  him. 
"If  I  am  asked  why  I  receive  the  Scriptures  as 
the  Word  of  God  and  the  only  perfect  rule  of 
faith  and  life,  I  answer,  with  all  the  fathers  of 
the  Protestant  Church,  'Because  the  Bible  is 
the  only  record  of  the  redeeming  love  of  God, 
because  in  the  Bible  alone  I  find  God  drawing 
near  to  man  in  Christ  Jesus  and  declaring  to  us 
in  him  his  will  for  our  salvation.  And  this 
record  I  know  to  be  true  by  the  witness  of  his 
spirit  in  my  heart,  whereby  I  am  assured  that 
none  other  than  God  himself  is  able  to  speak 
such  words  to  my  soul.'  "  Forsyth  declares  that 
the  Bible  is  "not  a  history  of  Israel  and  the 
early  Christians,  it  is  the  history  of  redemption." 
Milman  long  ago  also  said  something  like  that. 
You  will  see  and  will  say  that  I  am  purposely 
avoiding  such  questions  as  inspiration,  histori- 
city, criticism,  and  inerrancy,  and  you  will  be 

61 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

correctly  interpreting  my  attitude  and  purpose. 
I  am  thinking,  as  you  know  well,  of  preaching 
and  not  of  anything  else  except  as  it  relates  to 
preaching.  The  questions  of  theology  and  of 
scholarship  are  not  unimportant.  The  men  who 
scorn  these  questions  in  the  avowed  name  of 
piety  and  orthodoxy,  who  throw  obloquy  upon 
reverent  men  spending  their  lives  in  the  de- 
termination of  the  truth  concerning  these  sub- 
jects which  are  vital  to  life,  serve  neither  piety 
nor  orthodoxy.  But  we  have  in  mind  the  men 
who  bring  to  living  congregations  of  men, 
women,  and  children  not  the  processes  of  labo- 
ratory or  the  machinery  of  research  but  the 
message  of  life.  What  is  the  Bible  to  be,  what 
can  it  be  in  the  hands  of  such  men,  men  in 
earnest,  men  eager  to  help,  men  with  the  spirit 
of  that  other  Minister?  Has  the  ministry  of 
redemption  any  true,  living  message  of  redemp- 
tion .^^  And  having  lived  through  the  storm  and 
stress,  the  revolution  and  the  quiet,  the  wisdom 
and  the  foolishness  of  the  last  thirty-five  years, 
since  these  began  to  be  real  questions  for  me,  I 
declare  to  you  my  testimony  that  this  concep- 
tion of  the  ministry  as  redemptive  and  of  the 
Bible  as  the  supreme  literature  of  redemption 
sets  the  minister  who  holds  it  in  a  center  of 
peace  and  power  in  which  he  can  deliver  his 
message  of  redemption  and  do  the  work  of  re- 

62 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

demption,  unf retted  by  the  storms  and  clouds 
about  him.  The  Bible  is  the  record  of  how 
God  came  to  men  for  their  salvation.  In  its 
pages  men  can  see  the  face  of  the  Redeemer,  by 
its  light  can  find  their  way  out  of  Egypt  into 
Canaan,  from  the  far  country  of  husks  and 
swine,  to  the  Father's  house.  It  is  not  a  "re- 
pository of  miscellaneous  information  on  all  sorts 
of  subjects,'*  but  it  is  the  record  of  how  God  was 
in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  to  himself,  of 
how  the  Son  of  man  came  to  seek  and  to  save 
that  which  was  lost.  And  that  lifts  it,  for  the 
preacher,  above  a  lot  of  questions  and  renders 
it  immune  from  a  lot  of  dangers.  Above  all,  it 
makes  the  Bible  a  preacher's  book  without  any 
surrender  of  intellectual  rights,  or  without  re- 
quiring any  reactionary,  obscurantist  attitude  to 
modern  learning.  A  score  of  questions  will  re- 
main and  be  interesting,  but  in  the  midst  of  life 
the  minister  of  life  will  have  a  word  of  life,  and 
forever  a  gospel  in  the  Gospels.  And  as  he 
reads  again  and  again  this  story  of  redemption 
the  thing  itself  will  grow  upon  the  minister 
until  redemption  will  appear  to  him  the  glorious 
thing  it  is.  The  book  is  so  wonderful  because 
redemption  is  so  wonderful.  It  is  not  the  small, 
petty  task  of  saving  a  single  soul  from  some  sort 
of  hell.  It  is  saving  a  soul  from  death,  saving 
it  for  life;  saving  a  human  race  from  death,  sav- 

63 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

ing  a  human  race  for  life.  This  makes  every 
feature  of  the  movement  magnificent.  Redemp- 
tion is  God's  own  supreme  achievement.  He  has 
done  nothing  else  equal  to  this. 

This  conception  also  gives  us  a  true  and 
working  basis  for  the  preacher's  understanding 
and  interpretation  of  Jesus  Christ.  We  get  into 
the  heart  of  our  own  ministry  by  getting  into 
the  heart  of  his.  We  preach  not  ourselves  but 
Christ,  and  primarily  Christ  as  Redeemer.  Such 
mention  as  we  may  make  of  ourselves  is  of  our- 
selves as  redeemed  by  him.  We  are  poor  sub- 
jects for  sermons,  but  very  good  subjects  for 
redemption.  Preaching  Christ,  as  the  familiar 
words  run,  is,  after  all,  the  only  kind.  And 
preaching  Christ  is  not  just  preaching  him  in 
general,  it  is  preaching  him  in  the  essence  and 
heart  of  him  and  his  work.  He  did  not  come, 
as  we  saw  at  first,  to  reveal  just  any  sort  of 
God.  He  came  to  reveal  the  God  of  redemp- 
tion, the  personal,  saving  God.  He  did  not 
come  just  on  a  general  mission  of  good  will  and 
service.  He  came  on  the  holy  errand  of  man's 
redemption.  In  the  heart  of  him  he  was  the 
Redeemer.  In  the  simple  but  true  lines  of 
Dora  Green  well: 

"He  did  not  come  to  judge  the  world,  he  did  not  come  to 
blame; 
He  did  not  only  come  to  seek,  it  was  to  save  he  came. 
And  when  we  call  him  Saviour  then  we  call  him  by  his  name." 

64 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

Or,  since  we  are  quoting  such  lines,  let  us  take 
these  out  of  that  old  Bradbury  hymn  upon 
which  a  generation  was  brought  up: 

"There  is  no  name  so  sweet  on  earth,  no  name  so  sweet  in 
heaven. 
The  name  before  his  wondrous  birth   to  Christ  the  Saviour 
given." 

Here,  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  chief  significance  of 
Christ  both  for  the  minister's  theology  and  his 
preaching.  For  all  too  many  the  chief  interest 
has  gathered  about  the  Person  of  Christ  as  a 
doctrine,  rather  than  about  Christ  himself  as 
the  Saviour  from  sin.  Men  are  not  saved  by  a 
doctrine,  however  true,  nor  by  a  phrase,  how- 
ever clear,  nor  by  a  proposition,  however  exact. 
Men  are  saved  by  a  Person,  only  by  a  Person, 
and  only  by  one  Person.  Preaching  Christ  has 
become  a  cant  phrase,  but  it  was  first  of  all  a 
true  one.  When  now  you  define  clearly  the  end 
of  your  preaching,  the  power  of  your  preaching, 
and  the  way  of  your  preaching;  or  when  you 
define  the  way  of  it,  the  truth  of  it,  and  the  life 
of  it,  you  are  compelled  to  do  so  in  the  terms  of 
redemption  and  the  Redeemer.  The  test  of 
preaching  comes  most  severely  here,  not  at  the 
point  of  the  preacher's  emphasis  upon  the 
deity  of  Jesus  Christ  as  a  doctrine,  but  at  the 
point  of  his  preaching  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the 
Saviour.    What  is  the  end  of  preaching.'^    It  is 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

that  men  in  sin  and  sorrow  may  be  brought  to 
the  Saviour  from  both.  What  is  the  power  of 
preaching?  It  is  that  the  minister  of  Jesus 
Christ  has  a  Saviour  who  is  able  to  save.  What 
is  the  way  of  preaching?  It  is  the  way  of  Jesus 
himself,  his  way  with  fishermen,  rulers  of  San- 
hedrins,  taxgatherers,  and  adulterous  women,  al- 
ways the  way  of  the  Redeemer.  Preaching  is 
not  the  exhibition  of  a  doctrine.  Even  right 
doctrinal  preaching  is  not  that.  Preaching  is 
not  the  awakening  of  an  emotion,  though  it  will 
do  that.  Preaching  is  not  the  wise  showing  of 
the  wise  path  to  men  seeking  it,  though  it  will 
do  that.  Here  is  our  human  race,  near  and  far, 
in  its  sin,  its  ignorance,  its  weakness,  and  its 
sorrow,  and  for  that  race,  near  and  far,  in  your 
small  congregation  and  in  the  big  world,  the 
problem  of  all  problems  is  ever  the  problem  of 
the  renewal  of  its  life  in  righteousness,  the 
restoration  of  its  life  in  moral  character  and 
strength,  the  fortification  of  its  life  against 
temptation  and  grief.  And  there  is  no  other 
name  given  under  heaven  or  among  men  but 
the  name  of  Jesus.  There  never  has  been  a 
really  great  preacher  who  tried  any  other.  And 
there  is  no  way  to  restore  our  ministry  to  such 
power  as  it  has  lost  except  by  setting  again  in 
the  very  center  of  that  ministry  Jesus  Christ 
the  Redeemer. 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

The  chief  end  of  revelation  was  redemption. 
The  chief  end  of  preaching  is  redemption.  This 
is  the  center  of  Christian  doctrine,  the  glory  of 
Christian  literature,  the  life  of  Christian  ethics, 
the  power  of  the  Christian  pulpit.  Disaster  and 
weakness  have  always  followed  Christian  teach- 
ing and  preaching  when  the  chair  and  the 
pulpit,  in  teaching  and  preaching,  have  missed 
their  proper  emphasis.  I  know  no  way  to  save 
doctrine  from  its  abstractness,  literature  from 
its  emptiness,  ethics  from  its  impotence,  the 
chair  from  its  remoteness,  the  pulpit  from  its 
futility  and  littleness  except  by  pouring  again 
the  stream  of  redemptive  life  into  them  all.  I 
cannot  wonder  at  Saint  John's  words.  In  old 
age  he  sits  down  to  write  his  recollections,  to 
put  the  gospel  into  his  Gospel.  He  is  feeble 
and  aware  of  his  own  weakness,  but  not  con- 
scious of  any  other  weakness  than  his  own. 
The  things  his  old  eyes  have  seen,  his  old  hands 
handled,  when  life  was  young,  sweep  before  him 
like  swelling  tide  or  rising  sun.  And  at  the 
opening  he  writes,  "In  him  was  life."  At  the 
end  he  puts  down,  "Many  other  things  Jesus 
did."  He  was  not  conscious  of  religion  as  a 
doctrine,  or  as  an  act,  or  as  a  law,  but  as  a  rich, 
new,  abundant  life  in  Jesus  Christ.  Here  is  the 
place  for  us  to  recover  our  power  to  make 
mighty  affirmations  free  from  ambiguity  and  un- 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

certainty.  Certain  old  authority  is  gone  from 
the  pulpit.  New  power  is  not  yet  born.  The 
age  is  sensitive  and  uncertain  at  the  very  point 
where  it  should  be  neither.  We  cannot  live, 
much  less  be  omnipotent  in  this  atmosphere. 
Nor  can  we  regain  our  real  authority  by  any 
effort  to  recover  outworn  doctrines.  The  au- 
thority of  the  pulpit  does  not  lie  in  them  and 
never  did.  The  authority  of  the  Bible  over  life 
lies  in  its  redemptive  depths.  And  we  shall 
recover  for  the  pulpit  the  only  authority  worth 
having  when,  reverently,  obediently,  we  recover 
in  our  own  ministry  what  made  mighty  men 
mighty — the  life  of  God  moving  within  and 
upon  human  life  for  its  redemption.  I  can 
never  hold  again  certain  conceptions  of  au- 
thority and  infallibility,  but  I  can  never  lose 
again  the  vision  of  the  Redeemer  in  the  Word 
and  the  world. 

Of  course  I  know  how  easy  it  is  to  interpret 
redemption  in  a  small,  unworthy  way  and  to 
make  flippant  remarks  about  getting  people 
saved.  I  know  all  the  cheap  witticisms  about 
insurance  against  fire  in  the  next  world  and 
discomfort  in  this.  I  know  how  crass  and 
narrow  have  been  many  of  the  ideas  of  the 
redeemed  life,  its  imperfections,  its  lack  of 
moral  fiber  and  human  sympathy.  But  there  is 
a  big  view  of  redemption,  a  big  view  of  indi- 

68 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

vidual  redemption,  and  such  a  view  of  social 
and  world  redemption  as  makes  life  worth  liv- 
ing even  in  troubled  days.  Maybe  there  will 
come  a  pulpit  that  will  interpret  the  redeemed 
life  as  Jesus  saw  it.  Maybe  that  pulpit  will 
interpret  that  life  in  this  large  way  to  men,  to 
races,  and  to  nations.  Maybe  there  will  come 
a  pulpit  that  will  put  the  edge  back  upon  the 
best  truth  we  have,  the  truth  of  redemption. 
Redemption  is  very  much  more  than  a  small 
revival  in  a  small  town,  or  the  saving  of  one 
drunkard  from  his  appetite,  or  one  libertine 
from  his  lust,  or  the  recovering  of  one  sheep 
that  has  strayed,  though  that  is  enough  to  set 
the  angels  to  singing.  It  is  very  much  more 
than  simply  giving  an  individual  a  new  emotion 
or  a  new  sensation.  The  work  of  Jesus  the 
Redeemer  is  no  small  thing  even  in  an  indi- 
vidual. We  can  only  recover  him  for  preaching 
purposes  by  recovering  his  own  conception  of 
his  redemptive  work  in  its  fullness  and  large- 
ness. You  cannot  make  a  great  ministry, 
though  you  can  secure  immediate  effectiveness, 
upon  a  small  idea  or  truth.  Some  churches  are 
winning  large  apparent  success  on  very  narrow 
ideas.  Their  zeal  carries  their  thin  edge  far. 
It  has  always  been  a  problem  how  to  secure 
breadth  of  view  and  energy  of  spirit  in  the 
same  person  or  group.     It  is  for  us  to  unite 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

theological  competence  with  intensity  of  pur- 
pose. We  must  then  interpret  redemption  and 
the  redeemed  life  in  an  adequate  and  worthy 
way,  if  we  are  to  be  true  and  good  ministers  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

What  a  glory  it  gives  to  preaching  to  have 
Christ's  conception  of  the  redeemed  life  to  pro- 
claim. And  what  a  strength  and  beauty,  what 
a  life  and  power  it  gives  to  have  such  a  Re- 
deemer to  preach  to  men  and  women.  This  is 
the  real  good  news.  You  have  a  lot  of  wonder- 
ful things  to  say,  a  lot  of  useful  and  valuable 
things  to  teach,  but  you  have  nothing  else  half 
so  good  as  that  message  of  redemption  and 
strength,  salvation  and  comfort,  which  is  tjie 
gospel.  Do  not  misunderstand  the  people  be- 
fore you  next  Sunday.  Neither  they  nor  you 
are  in  a  theological  vacuum.  They  are  not 
wrestling  against  the  principalities  of  doctrinal 
refinement.  Their  interests  are  not  academic 
nor  speculative.  Really  they  do  not  care  a 
great  deal  about  the  age  of  the  world  or  the 
documentary  hypothesis.  They  have  been 
beaten  during  the  week  by  evil,  they  are  being 
beaten  by  it;  the  serpent  that  bites  and  poisons 
is  not  a  far-off  fiction  or  figure  to  them.  They 
have  a  daily  conflict  to  keep  their  lives  clean 
and  their  souls  on  top.  More  kinds  of  devil 
are  loose  in  the  world  than  are  dreamed  of  in 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

your  experience.  The  people  before  you,  and 
much  more  the  people  outside  your  four  walls 
next  Sunday,  are  having  a  constant  warfare 
with  all  these  hideous  devils,  the  devils  with  the 
ugly,  accurate  names.  "Now  the  works  of  the 
flesh  are  manifest,  which  are  these:  adultery, 
fornication,  uncleanness,  lasciviousness,  idola- 
try, witchcraft,  hatred,  variance,  emulations, 
wrath,  strife,  seditions,  heresies,  envyings,  mur- 
ders, drunkenness,  revelings,  and  such  like." 
Where  you  least  suspect  it  often  the  battle  is 
fiercest.  It  is  not  nice,  of  course.  Leprosy  is 
not  nice  in  any  form  of  it,  whether  you  call  it 
leprosy,  lust,  or  licentiousness.  I  do  not  know 
what  those  demons  were  that  got  into  people 
in  the  olden  time,  but  I  know  what  they  did 
and  what  they  do.  For  they  still  enter  into  the 
lives  of  people.  You  will  come  down  from 
your  Mount  of  Transfiguration  after  you  have 
preached  until  you  are  in  a  rapture  and  find 
many  a  boy,  beautiful,  brave  boys  by  the  score, 
in  the  grasp  of  modern  demons.  Pippa,  as  she 
passes  with  her  cheery  song,  ever  goes  by  the 
men  and  women  near  to  evil  or  in  it. 

And  the  sorrow  of  the  world  is  as  prevalent  as 
its  sin.  Do  not  be  misled  by  any  false  philos- 
ophy, no  matter  how  brave  or  cheerful  its  words. 
Charles  Sumner  underwent  the  operation  known 
as  moxa.     When  asked  if  it  hurt,  he  replied: 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

"Fire  burns.  I  think  there  are  not  two  opinions 
about  that."  In  the  youth  of  your  ministry 
sorrow  will  not  mean  so  much  to  you,  but  as 
you  go  on,  walking  by  the  world^s  graves,  sitting 
in  homes  desolated  by  death  or  broken  by  dis- 
grace and  betrayal,  you  will  know  that  sorrow 
is  no  fiction  or  fancy  in  the  world  of  men.  Of 
course  men  and  women  are  brave.  They  do 
not  give  way  nor  whimper.  You  think  time 
heals  or  causes  them  to  forget,  but  do  not  mis- 
understand. There  will  be  enough  live  sorrow 
in  any  congregation,  small  or  large,  to  break 
the  heart  of  an  angel.  Now,  thank  your  stars, 
and  bless  your  God,  you  preaching  men,  that 
in  the  presence  of  life  like  all  of  this  you  have 
a  Saviour  like  Jesus  Christ  for  preaching  uses. 
And  do  not  dull  the  edge  of  or  withhold  from 
constant  pulpit  use  this  very  best  truth  you 
have.  Sinning  and  suffering  are  desperately 
human.  Never  forget  that  men  want  to  be 
assured  about  the  seed  of  the  woman  that  can 
bruise  the  serpent's  head,  that  they  cry  aloud 
in  their  hearts  for  comfort,  that  they  long  to  be 
fortified.  Do  not  fail  them.  And  do  not  mis- 
take exhortations  to  righteousness  for  preaching 
Christ.  You  can  lay  down  the  law  to  men. 
You  can  declare  what  a  great  man  called  the 
glad  tidings  of  damnation.  You  may  call  it 
preaching  the  gospel.     But  for  preaching  pur- 

72 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

poses  righteousness  of  life  is  the  promise  of  the 
gospel,  and  privilege  in  the  Redeemer  much 
more  than  a  requirement  of  the  law. 

A  thousand  things  can  be  preached  around 
the  Redeemer  as  the  center,  but  there  is  no 
true  preaching  around  any  other  center.  For 
this  is  the  heart  of  Christianity,  Christ's  per- 
sonal presence  in  human  life  for  salvation  and 
friendship;  salvation  from  sin,  for  character, 
service  and  friendship  in  the  new  life.  Do  not  be 
so  careful  about  the  definitions  of  the  redeemed 
life  as  to  take  the  life  out  of  it.  And  do  not 
confuse  knowledge  of  the  processes  with  skill  in 
securing  the  results.  Here,  as  everywhere  in 
our  preaching,  abstract  terms  are  far  less  im- 
portant than  personal  ones.  Jesus  is  the  Re- 
deemer of  men,  of  all  men  and  of  the  whole  of  a 
man.  Men  may  not  know  much  psychology, 
they  need  not  know  much,  to  yield  their  lives 
to  him  for  the  rich  experience  that  makes  them 
over  into  new  men.  The  transaction  is  per- 
sonal like  love.  The  power  is  personal  in  him, 
the  result  personal  in  the  man.  The  man  who 
is  a  sinner  meets  the  man  who  is  the  Saviour, 
and  the  final  outcome  is  a  man  who  is  a  saint. 
And  language  fails  us  when  we  try  to  describe 
the  thing.  If  ever  Saint  Paul  loses  his  way  in  a 
paragraph,  it  is  when  he  tries  to  tell  what  the 
Redeemer  means  to  a  man.    His  rhetoric  runs 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

riot,  as  if  there  were  no  restraining  it,  as,  in- 
deed, there  is  not. 

And  do  not  get  mixed  up  about  personal  re- 
demption, social  redemption,  and  world  re- 
demption. There  is  a  fundamental  law  that 
one  good  thing  is  not  a  substitute  for  another. 
Do  not  get  foolish  and  go  to  decrying  indi- 
vidual salvation  while  pleading  for  the  salva- 
tion of  society.  Do  not  lose  sight  of  a  man's 
relations  in  life  either  while  you  go  after  the 
man  himself.  The  word  here,  as  in  all  preaching, 
is  completeness,  not  election.  We  are  always 
getting  hold  of  one  truth,  or  one  phase  of  a 
truth,  as  though  the  part  were  greater  than  the 
whole.  Jesus  held  things  level,  saw  them  steady 
and  saw  them  whole.  Redemption  is  indi- 
vidual. You  cannot  get  ahead  one  inch  except 
on  that  basis.  The  trouble  with  the  world  is 
its  evil.  Bad  men,  individual  bad  men,  have 
to  be  made  good  men.  The  product  is  a  Chris- 
tian man,  a  saint  in  the  process  of  development 
according  to  type,  Jesus  being  the  type.  And 
redemption  is  social.  Men  live  together,  are 
members  one  of  another.  The  outcome  is  a 
kingdom,  in  the  process  also,  according  to  type, 
the  New  Jerusalem  being  the  type,  a  kingdom 
of  world  proportions  and  extent.  Back  there  a 
moment  ago  I  read  that  ugly,  hateful  list  of 
words  which  Paul  used  when  writing  to  the 

74 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

Galatians.  It  must  have  made  him  almost 
sick  to  write  them.  He  did  not  spin  them  off 
in  glee.  Henry  Drummond  once  said  that  after 
a  series  of  interviews  with  men  about  their 
lives  he  felt  he  must  take  a  moral  bath.  Saint 
Paul  knew  what  he  was  saying,  and  knew  the 
meaning  of  his  awful  words.  And  he  goes 
straight  into  a  moral  bath  in  the  words  that 
follow.  "But  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love, 
joy,  peace,  longsuffering,  gentleness,  goodness, 
faith,  meekness,  temperance:  against  such 
there  is  no  law.  And  they  that  are  Christ's 
have  crucified  the  flesh  with  the  affections  and 
lusts." 

This  sounds  like  having  put  off  the  old  man 
and  having  put  on  the  new.  It  sounds  like  one 
of  the  descriptions  of  the  redeemed  life.  There 
are  others  just  as  good.  But  they  all  mean 
character  for  the  person  and  goodness  in  the 
group.  There  is  nothing  small  about  it,  and 
nothing  that  cannot  be  preached  with  tre- 
mendous affirmations.  There  is  nothing  else 
half  so  good  for  preaching.  For  the  world  has 
failed  at  the  point  of  character  and  broken 
down  at  the  point  of  relations.  It  has  not 
failed  in  wealth  or  intelligence,  but  in  moral 
character  and  moral  relations.  And  you  are 
the  preachers  of  the  Redeemer  of  men  in  these 
vital  matters.     Let  nothing  dull  the  edge  of 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

your  consciousness  of  your  gospel  as  the  gospel 
of  redemption.  Let  nothing  weaken  your  con- 
fidence in  it.  Many  things  do  dull  this  conscious- 
ness. Beware  of  them.  It  is  old,  I  know,  but 
let  no  desire  for  false  novelty,  no  sense  of  help- 
lessness, no  breadth  of  scholarship  or  sympathy 
rob  you  of  the  heart  of  your  preaching  message. 
It  was  said  of  Hugh  Price  Hughes  that  "he  re- 
covered for  his  church  its  ancient  passion  for 
the  souls  of  men  and  set  that  passion  in  living 
power  in  the  stream  of  modern  life."  There 
are  men  who  have  the  ancient  passion,  others 
who  are  conscious  of  the  stream  of  modern  life. 
It  is  for  you  preaching  men  to  be  in  that  mod- 
ern stream,  not  drifting  with  it,  nor  helpless 
before  it,  but  with  that  ancient  passion  of  re- 
demption as  an  imperial  power  to  make  that 
stream  a  river  of  life  like  the  one  that  flows 
from  beneath  the  throne. 

Christ  as  the  Redeemer  gives  us  our  real 
message  to  the  non-Christian  lands,  our  mis- 
sionary message,  to  be  specific.  We  have  no 
evangel  to  any  person  unless  we  have  it  for  all 
persons.  Our  greatest  need  is  not  simply  the 
need  of  the  men  and  women  in  our  town,  it  is 
the  need  of  the  men  and  women  in  our  world, 
people  like  us  on  any  planet  that  has  people. 
Once  the  Jews  sought  after  signs,  the  Greeks 
after  wisdom.     The  Jews  wanted  evidence  of 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

God's  power,  the  Greeks  light  on  the  way  of 
life.  Those  early  preachers  offered  in  answer 
Christ  crucified,  the  power  of  God,  and  the 
wisdom  of  God.  Christianity  then  was  young. 
Its  gospel  had  not  become  vague  or  uncertain, 
elaborate  and  dull.  It  centered  the  power  of 
God  and  the  wisdom  of  God  in  the  moral 
miracle  of  a  redeemed,  transformed  life.  It 
laid  far  more  stress  upon  making  bad  men 
good  than  upon  any  other  miracle.  And  from 
Jacob  to  Jerry  McAuley  this  is  still  the  best 
test  near  and  far. 

You  may  make  the  most  of  the  good  things 
in  other  religions.  You  may  make  the  most  of 
the  beautiful  characters  to  be  found  here  and 
there  in  non-Christian  lands.  Charles  Cuthbert 
Hall  did  that  in  fine  and  gracious  spirit.  Every 
non-Christian  religion  has  some  good  in  it.  Be 
glad  of  it.  Be  glad  whenever  you  find  an  ex- 
cellence anywhere.  There  are  some  gold  but- 
tons on  the  garments  of  heathenism,  flashes  of 
light  in  heathenism's  darkness,  lovely  sayings 
and  radiant  truths  in  its  abysmal  depths,  beau- 
tiful characters  in  a  dark  world.  But  do  not 
draw  a  false  inference  from  this.  Heathenism 
is  not  full  of  good  people  believing  in  bad  or 
mistaken  religions,  needing  only  to  have  their 
religion  changed.  Many  people  have  asked  me 
if  the  heathen  world  as  I  saw  it  is  not  getting 

77 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

along  pretty  well  with  the  religions  it  has.  And 
I  wanted  to  find  every  good  thing  there  was, 
and  rejoiced  in  every  good  thing  that  appeared. 
But  here  is  the  answer:  Nobody  anywhere  is 
getting  along  pretty  well  without  Jesus  Christ. 
The  thing  that  burns  into  your  very  soul  in 
every  heathen  temple  and  before  every  heathen 
shrine,  and  especially  in  the  face  of  heathen- 
ism's life  of  sorrow  and  sin,  is  this:  "There  is 
no  other  name."  Humanity  is  morally  wrecked, 
and  the  non-Christian  religions  are  helpless  to 
bring  redemption.  The  whole  race  is  sick  unto 
death,  and  there  is  no  physician  but  One.  The 
problem  of  redemption  for  Jesus  and  for  us 
preachers  is  not  the  problem  of  a  stray  soul 
here  and  there.  It  is  the  problem  of  a  race 
which  has  lost  the  way  and  with  all  its  gropings 
has  not  found  it,  a  race  in  rebellion  against  the 
law  of  life,  a  law  it  can  break  but  not  destroy. 
Honestly,  you  come  at  last  to  wish  that  those 
other  religions  were  eflScient  for  redemption, 
they  have  such  a  hold  upon  such  unthinkable 
millions.  But  there  is  salvation  in  no  other 
than  this.  There  is  no  other  name,  neither  is 
there  salvation  in  any  other.  God  was  in 
Christ  and  is  in  the  world  for  man's  redemp- 
tion. That  is  the  strength  of  your  preaching 
everywhere.  Comparative  religion  does  not 
mean  that  Christianity  is  comparatively  good, 

78 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

but  that  it  is  absolutely  good.  No  wonder  the 
New  Testament  nearly  bursts  upon  two  sub- 
jects— the  new  Christ  and  the  new  life  in  Christ. 
The  wineskins  of  language  were  tolerably  tough 
and  reliable,  but  they  would  not  hold  this 
turbulent  new  wine.  And  no  man  has  any 
message  to  heathenism  who  cannot  make  mighty 
affirmations  about  this  new  life  and  preach  tre- 
mendously this  saving  Christ.  The  cross  he 
carried  was  not  heavy  because  of  the  wood, 
but  because  of  the  world.  Far  past  saving  the 
Jews  he  had  swept  as  he  went  up  the  low  hill 
outside  the  gate.  The  ache  of  the  world  is  not 
a  thing  of  space  or  time  or  race.  The  move- 
ment for  redemption  stretches  through  the  cen- 
turies and  over  the  continents.  It  is  not  com- 
fortable and  complacent,  shallow,  local,  or 
provincial.  God  is  not  at  ease  about  this  busi- 
ness here  or  anywhere.  O,  preaching  men,  good 
ministers  of  Jesus  Christ,  do  you  see  what  is 
yours  to  preach?  Then  into  that  wide-flowing, 
deep-running  stream  of  modern  life,  into  it  with 
the  ancient  passion,  the  passion  of  Christ,  the 
wisdom  of  God  and  power  of  God  for  man's 
redemption ! 

This  conception  also  defines  the  church  as 
the  society  of  redemption.  The  Bible  is  the 
book  of  redemption,  the  Redeemer  and  the  re- 
deemed.   Jesus  Christ  is  the  bringer  of  redemp- 

79 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

tion.  The  church  is  the  society  of  redemption. 
It  has  in  it  the  Redeemer,  the  redeemed,  and 
those  who  are  being  redeemed,  and  evermore  it 
seeks  to  bring  redemption  near.  The  society  of 
redemption,  that  is  what  it  is  on  earth.  The 
society  of  the  redeemed,  that  it  is  and  will  be 
when  its  work  is  complete.  There  will  be  no 
statistics  then;  the  great  host  will  not  be  num- 
bered, but  there  will  be  a  song  worth  hearing. 

Now,  I  am  anxious  all  the  time  to  keep  the 
definiteness,  the  edge,  the  urgency  of  our  mes- 
sage along  with  the  breadth  and  largeness  of  the 
spirit  which  Christianity  has  created.  The  very 
intensity  of  early  Christianity  made  inevitable, 
in  course  of  time,  a  broader  Christianity  as  its 
outcome.  Then  come  two  errors,  one  the  de- 
nunciation of  breadth,  the  other  reliance  upon 
it.  You  are  to  be  preaching  men,  with  churches. 
To  you  this  is  not  an  academic  matter,  but  a 
very  practical  one.  How  can  you  preserve  in  a 
church  that  first  zeal  and  intensity  and  not  be 
a  reactionary  toward  modern  forces  and  con- 
ditions .^^  How  can  you  preserve  intensity  with- 
out narrowness,  or  passionate  interest  along  with 
true  breadth  and  freedom  of  spirit  .^^  Many  men, 
feeling  this  difficulty,  have  broken  with  one  or 
the  other  of  these  two  ideals  that  really  unite 
in  their  lower  depths.  The  church  itself  has 
had  long  and  genuine  difficulty  at  this  point. 

80 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  has 
had  the  same  trouble — the  trouble  to  preserve 
its  first,  best  spirit  and  purpose  along  with  its 
inevitable  expansion  and  enlargement  of  ac- 
tivities and  life.  And  I  know  no  way  for  the 
church  or  any  part  of  it  except  to  hold  fast  to 
its  redemptive  purpose,  to  make  itself  a  true 
society  of  redemption,  and  to  permeate,  to  in- 
spire, to  inform  all  its  activities  with  that 
original  spirit.  Redemption  narrowly  consid- 
ered is  fatal  even  to  the  redemptive  movements. 
Activity,  even  the  activity  of  a  church,  without 
the  redemptive  motive  and  power,  breaks  down 
for  lack  of  that  motive.  The  elder  brother  was 
busy  at  his  father's  work,  but  lacked  the  father's 
passion,  the  father's  everlasting  interest  in  the 
son  who  had  gone  away.  The  church  has  more 
than  once  been  discredited  and  set  aside  be- 
cause it  has  narrowly  interpreted  its  redemptive 
mission.  Other  agencies  have  cut  in  behind  the 
church,  have  set  life  flowing  into  other  channels, 
have  taken  up  tasks  belonging  to  the  church, 
tasks  sometimes  neglected  by  the  church.  The 
history  is  rather  tragic  in  many  of  its  features, 
lamentable  failures  lying  all  along  the  way. 
Nothing  but  a  purpose  to  leaven  the  whole  sad 
lump  can  save  the  redemptive  leaven,  nothing 
but  the  redemptive  leaven  can  save  the  lump. 
There  is  no  other  force  that  will  do  it.     The 

81 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

church  will  lose  what  it  has  if  it  uses  it  in  a  small 
and  unworthy  way.  It  can  save  its  redemptive 
leaven  only  by  a  true  enlargement  of  its  ac- 
tivity. But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  no 
salvation  by  any  organization  which  is  not  a 
society  of  redemption.  Good  it  may  do,  splen- 
did results  it  may  accomplish;  and  some  of 
these  valuable,  secondary  results  may  blind  the 
church  as  to  its  own  character.  It  is  easy  to 
misconceive  the  supreme  purpose,  easy  to  mis- 
apply the  final  motive.  The  short  view  and  the 
near  view  often  get  in  the  way  of  the  long,  large 
view.  But,  surely,  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ 
the  Redeemer,  with  the  Bible,  the  book  of  re- 
demption, in  its  hand,  must  ever  be  at  its  heart 
the  society  of  redemption.  This  will  determine 
its  spirit.  This  will  fix  its  standards  of  admis- 
sion and  its  conditions  of  membership.  This 
will  govern  its  activities,  give  tone  to  its  preach- 
ing, its  teaching,  and  its  large  total  life.  The 
society  of  redemption  will  not  assume  an  air 
of  superiority  or  exclusiveness  in  a  world  of  men 
fighting  sin.  It  will  be  a  modern  city  of  refuge 
for  the  hunted  and  hurt.  And  there  will  be 
plenty  of  gates  on  each  side  of  the  city,  so  that 
even  a  blind  man  can  find  his  way  in.  Men 
fleeing  from  any  kind  of  wrath,  present  or  to 
come;  men  wanting  safety  against  evil  in  any 
form,  will  find  it  easier  to  find  their  way  into 

82 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

the  society  of  redemption  than  anywhere  else. 
The  world  is  organized  so  that  going  wrong  is 
easy,  going  right  diJQScult.  The  society  of  re- 
demption will  reverse  that  order.  At  the  risk 
of  being  misunderstood,  but  thinking  of  the 
Redeemer  and  the  people  who  need  him,  I 
venture  to  say  that  Christ's  society  of  redemp- 
tion will  fix  its  terms  and  its  spirit  so  that  it 
will  be  easy  and  desirable  to  get  into  it  and 
hard  and  undesirable  to  get  out  of  it,  for  it  will 
not  care  to  save  itself;  it  will  only  care  to  save 
the  lost.  And  so  it  will  become  all  things  to  all 
men  in  the  hope  that  in  every  one  of  these 
ways  it  may  save  some,  through  every  one  of 
these  gates  may  induce  many  to  come.  And 
it  will  do  all  this  for  the  sake  of  the  good  news 
of  redemption,  not  that  society  may  monopolize, 
but  that  it  may  share  its  benefits  with  all  men. 
This  will  not  be  simply  the  spirit  that  men 
who  seek  can  find  in  the  church,  it  will  be  the 
spirit  the  seeking  church  will  everywhere  show 
to  men,  the  spirit  men  cannot  fail  to  find.  It 
will  reveal  the  spirit  of  the  Kingdom  rather 
than  the  spirit  of  the  ecclesiasticism.  It  will 
remember  that  it  deals  as  a  shepherd,  after  the 
pattern  of  the  Good  Shepherd,  with  all  sorts  of 
sheep,  some  old,  some  very  young,  some  wan- 
dering, some  not  very  valuable  in  the  market, 
none  very  wise,  but  all  infinitely  better  off  in  the 

S3 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

fold  with  the  shepherd  than  outside  with  the 
wolves.  There  is  no  room  in  this  society  of 
redemption  for  Pharisaism  or  spiritual  pride,  or 
personal  assumption.  There  is  no  room  for  any 
spirit  except  the  spirit  of  that  Redeemer  who 
is  the  ever-living  head  of  the  society. 

I  am  not  pleading  for  a  narrow  interpretation 
of  the  church,  nor  for  a  reactionary  basis  for  its 
life.  No  narrow,  reactionary  church  can  live 
powerfully  in  this  modern  world.  I  am  only 
pleading  that  the  church  devoted  to  reform,  to 
philanthropy,  to  religious  education,  to  social 
betterment,  to  industrial  welfare  and  interna- 
tional peace,  shall  not  lose  its  power  in  these 
good  regions  by  forsaking  or  forgetting  the 
basis  and  center  of  its  power  in  the  world. 
These  are  tremendous  as  allies,  but  deadly  as 
substitutes  for  the  gospel.  The  source  of  the 
church's  power  is  its  contact  with  the  Re- 
deemer, his  spirit  in  its  life,  his  purpose  toward 
men  in  the  world.  The  church  of  Jesus  Christ 
must  take  its  tone  from  the  supreme  purpose  of 
Jesrus  Christ.  Strong  and  useful  it  may  be  in 
many  noble  and  beautiful  ways,  but  it  can  only 
be  a  church  of  the  Redeemer  by  being  a  society 
of  redemption. 

Three  words  have  been  spoken:  the  Bible  is 
the  book  of  redemption,  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
Redeemer,  the  church  is  the  society  of  redemp- 

84 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

tion.  One  more  word  remains:  humanity  is  the 
subject  of  redemption.  Mankind  in  itself,  in  its 
relations  and  in  its  conditions,  all  stands  there 
before  the  good  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  the 
light  of  his  life,  his  ministry,  his  spirit,  his 
cross,  and  his  empty  grave.  His  attitude  must 
determine  yours.  See  that  you  do  all  things 
according  to  the  pattern  shown  in  the  mount. 
His  attitude  will  save  you  fram  taking  a  small, 
meager,  narrow,  unworthy  view  of  the  meaning 
and  scope  of  redemption.  His  experience  will 
save  you  from  the  superficial  view  that  the 
task  is  easy  and  simple.  His  relations  will  save 
you  from  race  pride,  class  pride,  wicked  ex- 
clusiveness,  national  intolerance  or  ecclesiastical 
assumption.  His  life  will  save  you  from  per- 
sonal complacency  or  professional  ease  in  the 
face  of  your  task  and  his.  It  will  save  your 
scholarship  from  barrenness  and  your  intellec- 
tual life  from  death.  Humanity  as  it  is,  hu- 
manity in  its  wrong  and  often  frightful  relations, 
humanity  in  its  conditions,  its  awful  conditions 
seen  in  the  large,  this  humanity,  seen  through 
the  Redeemer's  eyes,  is  the  subject  of  redemp- 
tion. For  it  he  came,  to  it  he  came.  For  it  he 
lived,  for  it  he  died.  To  it  he  spoke,  to  it  he 
gave,  always  that  it  might  be  redeemed  from 
death  to  life  eternal,  from  sin  to  goodness,  from 
destruction  to  salvation.    Do  not  be  too  careful 

85 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

to  define  redemption.  Remember  what  Cole- 
ridge said  about  making  a  truth  too  small  by 
making  it  too  definite.  And  of  all  truths  this 
must  have  a  large  content,  large  in  its  reach 
into  grace  on  one  hand  and  into  life  on  the 
other.  It  must  never  be  slurred  over  as  it 
must  never  be  dropped  out  or  allowed  to  get 
lost.  How  large  this  task  is  can  be  understood 
when  you  see  it  as  he  saw  it.  Let  no  man  ever 
say  that  the  ministry  of  redemption  is  a  small 
ministry.  All  men  in  themselves,  all  men  in 
their  relations,  all  men  in  the  conditions  of  their 
lives,  were  in  the  purpose  of  that  other  Min- 
ister. He  could  not  speak  to  them  simply  as 
an  orator  or  as  a  teacher.  He  must  speak  to 
them  as  a  preacher  whose  object  was  their 
redemption.  For  their  sakes  he  became  poor, 
for  their  sakes  he  planted  a  cross  in  his  life, 
for  their  sakes  he  was  cast  into  the  ground  that 
he  might  not  abide  alone,  for  their  sakes  was 
lifted  up  that  he  might  draw  all  men  to  him- 
self. This  is  the  great  unselfishness,  this  the 
spirit  of  every  true  ministry,  this  the  Golden 
Rule  of  the  higher  life,  this  the  magnificent 
adventure.  You  can  go  either  one  of  two  ways 
in  the  world  and  in  the  ministry,  but  you  can 
go  only  one  way  with  him.  You  can  go  the 
way  of  saving  yourselves,  or  you  can  go  the 
way  of  saving  humanity.    This  latter  way  leads 

86 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  REDEMPTION 

through  Nazareths,  Capernaums,  Gethsemanes, 
and  Calvaries,  and  is  lined  with  fishermen, 
lepers,  Magdalens,  publicans,  thieves,  and  the 
like.  But  out  of  this  soiled  and  motley  crowd 
come  those  who  walk  in  this  way  after  him, 
drawn  by  his  Spirit,  thrilled  by  his  presence, 
obedient  to  his  word.  They  wear  white  robes, 
they  live  in  love,  they  sing  a  new  song,  they 
are  new  creatures.  And  they  are  a  host  that 
no  man  can  number. 


87 


LECTURE  III 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  INCARNATION 

'*The  Word  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt  among 


us. 


LECTURE  III 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  INCARNATION 

A  THOUGHTFUL  person  can  hardly  help  re- 
gretting that  such  mystifying  and  appalling 
names  have  got  themselves  attached  to  certain 
matters  of  deep  interest  and  common  concern. 
The  names  given  to  diseases  add  to  the  terror 
of  being  sick.  The  shadow  of  the  name  over- 
comes the  patient.  The  religious  value  of  many 
doctrines  is  greatly  modified  by  the  terms  desig- 
nating them.  It  is  rather  a  fearsome  experience 
for  the  average  congregation  when  these  terms, 
perfectly  proper  in  their  place,  get  loose  in  a 
sermon.  An  ordinary  saint  is  not  sure  he  wants 
to  be  saved  when  he  hears  the  theological  name 
for  salvation,  or  live  forever  when  he  hears  the 
theological  term  for  the  doctrine  of  the  future 
life.  And  it  seems  a  real  misfortune  that  so 
human,  warm,  personal  a  truth  as  the  truth  of 
the  incarnation  should  have  had  to  bear  a  name 
so  distinctly  difficult.  The  very  mention  of  it 
usually  sets  all  the  bristles  of  debate  into  action, 
whereas  actually  there  is  not  a  word  in  our 
language  with  more  love  and  grace  and  good 
will  in  it.    But  it  is  not  a  good  word  for  preach- 

91 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

ing  purposes,  except  perhaps  in  very  select  cir- 
cles. We  are  concerned  about  the  preaching 
value  of  supreme  truths,  and  we  are  anxious  that 
the  inevitable  names  belonging  to  them  shall  not 
destroy  this  preaching  value.  We  do  not  want 
to  lose  the  truths  or  have  them  obscured.  Our 
concern  is  with  people  and  with  preaching  to 
them,  and  we  must  use  truth  for  that  purpose. 
This  is  not  a  low  or  common  ideal.  It  does  not 
cheapen  learning  to  popularize  it  in  legitimate 
ways.  Science  is  glorified  and  exalted  when  it  is 
pressed  down  into  the  folds  of  the  common  life 
of  the  world.  When  the  science  of  chemistry 
improves  the  daily  food  of  men,  chemistry  is 
exalted.  Ore  must  be  minted  in  order  to  its 
circulation  as  currency.  The  preacher  is  to  do 
this  with  truth,  fit  it  for  use  by  common  men, 
like  gold  coin  or  wholesome  food.  The  philos- 
opher and  the  scholar  have  great  and  significant 
use  in  the  preacher's  world,  but  it  is  for  the 
preacher  to  interpret,  to  translate  into  the  fa- 
miliar speech  of  man  what  otherwise  will  be  in 
an  unknown  tongue,  true  enough  but  not  under- 
stood. The  preacher  uses  the  leaven  of  learning 
to  leaven  the  mass  of  unleavened  life  which  will 
be  inexpressibly  sad  without  it.  I  beg  you, 
therefore,  to  cure  yourselves  early  of  that  con- 
ceit which  despises  the  right  sort  of  popular 
preaching.    If  you  have  not  the  kind  of  speech 

92 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INCARNATION 

that  common  people  love  to  hear,  do  not  be 
proud  of  it  or  think  yourself  a  superior  person 
because  you  lack  it.  Remember  whose  com- 
pany you  are  not  in  when  the  common  people 
do  not  hear  you  gladly.  And  His  company  we 
principally  covet. 

Now,  after  all  that,  I  am  obliged  to  say  that 
the  good  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  will  have  a 
ministry  of  incarnation,  as  he  will  have  a  min- 
istry of  revelation.  Incarnation  will  be  the  way 
he  will  accomplish  his  ministry  of  revelation  for 
the  purpose  of  redemption.  But  having  said  it, 
we  can  hurry  at  once  into  the  personal  warmth, 
the  human  feeling  and  divine  glow  of  it,  which 
will  be  good  for  our  souls  and  good  for  our 
preaching. 

How  fine  a  thing  it  is  for  a  man  to  interpret 
his  vocation  or  profession  as  that  calling  appears 
in  the  life  of  the  best  person  in  it!  A  teacher 
may  be  very  obscure  and  unknown,  a  very  in- 
significant member  of  his  noble  profession,  but 
all  teaching  is  glorified  for  him  by  the  life  of 
Thomas  Arnold.  The  medical  profession  is  dis- 
tinguished for  all  doctors  by  such  physicians  as 
William  MacLure.  I  can  recall  across  more  than 
a  generation  of  years  the  new  way  the  ministry 
looked  to  us  in  our  youth  when  we  heard  Phillips 
Brooks  preach.  It  was  not  vanity,  it  certainly 
was  not  any  feeling  that  we  could  ever  do  it  as 

93 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

well,  that  led  us,  after  hearing  him,  to  say  with 
a  kind  of  exaltation,  "I  also  am  a  minister.'* 
Interpreting  the  high  calling  in  the  light  of  this 
man  in  it,  the  ministry  in  the  terms  of  this 
minister,  made  it  seem  a  vastly  higher  and  finer 
calling  than  it  had  seemed  before.  And  this 
seems  good  yet.  Our  impressions  and  convic- 
tions concerning  our  lives  must  always  be 
shaped  and  formed  by  these  best  examples.  We 
must  always  have  the  sense  of  kinship  with  the 
best.  As  Emerson  says  in  the  essay  on  History: 
"All  that  Shakespeare  says  of  the  king,  yonder 
slip  of  a  boy  that  reads  in  the  corner  feels  to  be 
true  of  himself."  But  see  where  all  this  swiftly 
and  surely  leads  us.  We  cannot  stop  short  of 
the  most  perfect  Person  who  ever  trod  these 
ways.  Our  ministry,  we  ourselves  as  ministers, 
must  finally  be  interpreted  in  the  light  of  his  life 
and  ministry.  We  must  be  and  must  feel  our- 
selves to  be  kin  to  him.  He  must  not  be  inex- 
plicable to  us.  We  must  be  able  to  unite  him  to 
ourselves  and  reconcile  him  to  our  aspirations. 
We  cannot  forget  his  perfections  and  the  vast, 
vital  differences  between  us,  but  neither  can  we 
forget  the  vast,  vital  relationships  between  him 
and  us.  And  evermore  a  holy  ministry  will  find 
Christ's  ministry,  his  words,  his  deeds,  his  spirit 
luminous  and  significant  to  it. 

And  now  I  want  to  try  to  get  into  the  incar- 

94 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INCARNATION 

nation,  not  in  its  theological  aspects,  not  as  a 
doctrinal  shibboleth,  not  as  a  test  of  orthodoxy, 
but  in  such  fashion  as  will  really  relate  it  to  our 
ministry  and  relate  our  ministry  to  it.  It  must 
be  an  object  of  study  and  interpretation.  It 
must  also  be  an  object  of  practice  and  imitation. 
The  good  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  must  base 
the  spirit  and  method  of  his  ministry  on  the 
spirit  and  method  of  Jesus  Christ's  earthly  life 
and  service.  The  Master  and  the  men  must 
have  the  same  principles.  With  every  allowance 
for  what  is  different,  the  modern  ministry  can 
only  be  saved  by  its  essential  resemblances  to 
that  early  and  perfect  ministry.  And  the  mod- 
ern ministry  needs  to  be  saved  all  the  time  from 
a  lot  of  things,  such  as  low  ideals,  officialism, 
professionalism,  commercialism,  and  discourage- 
ment. The  ministry  tends  ever  to  be  con- 
formed to  the  world  around  it  rather  than  to  be 
transformed  by  the  renewing  of  its  mind.  It  is 
always  tempted  to  shape  its  message  by  what 
the  people  will  stand  rather  than  to  speak  the 
word  of  Christ.  Or  when  it  does  get  what  it 
believes  to  be  the  prophetic  or  apostolic  spirit, 
it  is  ever  in  danger  of  becoming  denunciatory 
and  reckless,  mistaking  violent  speech  for  true 
speech,  and  a  needless,  self-imposed  dramatic 
public  martyrdom  for  fidelity  and  courage.  The 
ways  of  the  enemy  of  our  ministerial  souls  are 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

very  subtle.  He  has  immense  skill  in  destroy- 
ing us.  I  sometimes  think  he  has  special 
pleasure  in  causing  a  modern  minister  to  think 
himself  a  prophet  to  his  generation.  The  true 
prophets  of  a  generation  are  the  salt  of  the 
earth,  but  once  a  prophet  in  modern  days  be- 
comes self-conscious  he  quickly  loses  his  savor. 
The  cure  for  all  this  partial  and  imperfect  min- 
istry lies  in  having  Christ  formed  in  us,  being 
made  complete  in  him.  He  belonged  neither  to 
an  age  nor  to  a  type.  And  likeness  to  him  is  a 
remedy  for  religious  exaggeration  on  one  hand 
and  underdevelopment  on  the  other.  Arch- 
bishop Temple  used  these  words:  "If  I  did  not 
believe  that  Christ  had  by  his  incarnation  raised 
my  whole  life  to  an  entirely  higher  level — to  a 
level  with  his  own — I  hardly  know  how  I  should 
live  at  all."  Saint  Paul  used  even  stronger 
words:  "To  me  to  live  is  Christ";  and,  again, 
"Christ  liveth  in  me."  That  saves  our  man- 
hood and  our  ministry,  as  it  saved  Saint  Paul's. 
But,  now,  how  can  you  put  the  matter  of  the 
incarnation  in  current  terms,  terms  free  from 
technicality  and  scholasticism?  How  can  you 
make  it  clear  that  the  way  of  incarnation  was 
the  best  way,  possibly  the  only  way,  the  re- 
demptive God  could  reveal  himself  to  men, 
and  get  himself  into  human  life  for  the  pur- 
pose of  redemption?    He  must  make  his  revela- 

96 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INCARNATION 

tion  through  and  in  a  personality  and  get  his 
contact  with  unsaved  persons  by  a  saving 
Person.  For  remember  that  we  have  to  make 
these  deep  things  as  clear  as  possible  to  men 
and  women  who  do  not  pretend  to  be  theo- 
logically competent.  The  men  and  women 
whose  redemption  we  seek  are  always  before  us. 
I  dislike  to  speak  of  the  man  on  the  street  or 
the  average  man,  because  talk  about  these 
well-known  persons  has  been  rather  overdone. 
But  let  me  give  you  this  experience  with  a  man 
of  another  class.  After  one  of  the  student 
conferences  a  devout,  earnest,  recent  graduate 
came  to  one  who  had  spoken  two  or  three  times 
to  the  conference,  with  this  frank  statement: 
"I  am  an  orthodox  but  perplexed  member  of 
an  orthodox  evangelical  church.  I  believe  in 
the  incarnation,  but  am  in  an  utter  haze  about 
it  and  cannot  seem  to  get  through  to  any  clear 
view  that  will  satisfy  me.  I  am  not  a  skeptic. 
I  do  not  care  to  argue,  but  I  wish  you  or  some 
one  would  put  this  matter  so  it  would  mean 
something  vital  to  me.  It  ought  to  mean  more 
to  me  than  it  does  or  else  it  ought  not  to  mean 
so  much.  Somehow  I  have  not  got  it  into  my 
life  as  a  real  and  significant  force  which  corre- 
sponds with  its  place  in  my  creed."  Now,  what 
would  you  say,  on  a  railroad  train,  to  an  earnest 
young  Christian  scholar  in  that  state  of  mind.'* 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

Of  course  you  could  smile  at  the  immaturity  of 
it.  You  could  be  superior  and  scholarly.  You 
might  even  wonder  where  such  a  person  had 
studied.  You  might  even  quote  your  favorite 
lecturer,  using  or  omitting  the  quotation  marks. 
You  might  argue  as  with  a  budding  heretic. 
And  you  could  easily  lose  your  chance  to  guide 
a  life  aright.  For  while  you  were  doing  all  these 
things  the  man  might  easily  escape.  What  did 
that  older  preacher  do  and  say?  He  is  not 
much  of  a  scholar.  His  learning  is  not  very 
modern,  and  it  never  was  technical.  But  his 
spirit  he  has  tried  to  keep  modern,  and  his 
attitude  to  life  he  tries  to  keep  human.  He 
never  sees  a  young  man  like  that  perplexed 
graduate  without  having  a  thrill  which  he 
humbly  thinks  must  be  akin  to  the  feeling 
Jesus  had  when  he  saw  the  rich  young  ruler 
and  loved  him.  What,  then,  did  he  say  to  this 
youth?  He  asked  a  few  simple  questions  in  the 
spirit  of  a  pastor:  "Would  it  seem  strange  to 
you  that  a  strong  man  should  put  himself  into 
the  very  life  of  weak  men  to  help  them,  should 
take  their  very  weakness  upon  himself,  to  save 
them  from  their  weakness?  Would  it  seem 
strange  to  you  that  a  learned  man  should  go 
with  his  truth  and  learning  into  the  very  lives 
of  people  ignorant  and  in  bondage,  should  take 
the  very  limitations  of  their  lives  upon  him,  to 

98 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INCARNATION 

set  them  free?  Would  it  seem  strange  to  you 
that  a  good  man,  a  holy  man,  should  take  his 
goodness  into  the  heart  of  evil,  should  take 
men's  evil  upon  himself  that  he  might  destroy 
it  and  deHver  them  from  it?  Would  it  seem 
strange  to  you  that  a  rich  man  should  go  with 
his  wealth  into  the  midst  of  poverty,  should 
become  poor  that  others  should  be  rich,  that 
one  holding  health  in  his  hands  should  go  into 
any  kind  of  plague,  even  at  the  risk  and  cost  of 
his  own  life,  that  he  might  heal  the  sick  and 
banish  disease?"  They  were  simple  questions, 
perhaps  they  seem  very  commonplace,  but  the 
youth  laid  hold  of  them.  He  was  recently  from 
college  and  spoke  its  language.  Reverently  but 
rapturously  he  replied  after  a  moment:  "Is  it 
like  that?  If  you  put  it  that  way,  I  do  not  see 
how  God  could  keep  out  of  it.  He  had  to  get 
into  it  just  because  he  is  God.  And  he  had  to 
get  into  it  that  way  because  that  was  the  only 
way.  He  had  to  do  it,  he  could  do  it  and  he 
did  do  it."  Then  there  was  a  silence.  Then 
shortly,  with  the  frank  logic  of  youth,  that 
modern  disciple  added,  quietly:  "I  do  not  see 
how  I  can  keep  out  of  it  either.  I  guess  I  can 
clear  up  the  thing  by  doing  it." 

And  that  preacher,  no  longer  young,  sat  there 
thinking  of  that  other  ministry  and  of  his  own, 
and  the  ministry  of  his  brethren.    The  incarna- 

99 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

tion  did  not  seem  to  be  an  isolated  event,  a 
solitary  experience  for  one  person,  a  closed 
chapter  in  religious  life.  Always  the  unique- 
ness of  the  Maste;r's  experience  was  before  him, 
but  no  longer  did  that  experience  seem  solitary 
and  unrelated,  though  always  the  supreme  fact 
in  history.  Nor  did  it  seem  chiefly  a  matter  of 
metaphysics,  but  chiefly  a  matter  of  personal 
life,  purpose,  and  power.  It  seemed  ethical, 
vital,  and  religious,  and  because  of  the  unique- 
ness of  that  earlier  experience  it  seemed  and 
seems  to  be  a  process,  a  principle,  and  not 
simply  an  event.  Surely,  so  living,  so  necessary, 
so  beautiful  a  thing  was  not  exhausted  in  one 
life,  however  perfect.  Surely,  what  so  glorified 
his  ministry  ought  not  to  be  lacking  in  ours. 
If  our  ministry  is  to  be  based  upon  his,  if  we 
are  to  be  good  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ,  must 
not  this  mind  be  in  us  also?  And  where  can  we 
get  it  except  where  he  got  it?  How  can  we  get 
it  and  keep  it  except  as  he  got  it  and  kept  it? 
We  can  neither  get  away  from  him  nor  get  on 
without  him.  We  must  not  identify  the  super- 
natural with  the  abnormal  and  the  impossible. 
The  experiences  of  Jesus  must  all  be  viewed  in 
the  light  of  his  oft-used  words,  "The  kingdom 
of  heaven  is  like."  He  was  not  less  related  to 
men  than  to  God,  not  more  a  revelation  of  one 
than  the  other.    If  you  ask  what  God  is  like, 

100 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INCARNATION 

the  answer  is,  "Jesus  Christ."  So  if  we  ask 
what  is  real  humanity,  we  look  at  Christ  to 
find  the  answer.  No  one  sentence  from  him  or 
his  Book  fully  covers  the  case  for  us.  A  dozen 
sentences  arise  out  of  the  New  Testament 
charged  with  this  rich  meaning.  The  atmos- 
phere of  the  Gospels  envelops  us  with  it.  Take 
that  immortal  utterance  standing  up  there  in 
the  very  opening  of  John's  Gospel — "The  Word 
became  flesh."  Of  course  we  all  know  what  the 
original  Greek  term  is,  and  of  course  also  we 
are  not  going  to  be  pedantic  here  or  hereafter 
and  make  cheap  criticism  of  the  translation,  or 
vain  references  to  the  original.  That  is  too 
obvious  and  vulgar  to  be  impressive  anywhere. 
It  is  not  a  display  of  scholarship,  which  should 
never  be  displayed,  but  of  foolishness  which 
ought  always  to  be  kept  concealed  if  possible. 
But  the  best  kind  of  exposition  in  this  world  is 
the  kind  that  takes  a  familiar  word  or  text  and 
by  proper  paraphrase  and  use  of  other  words 
makes  the  familiar  fresh  and  luminous,  so  that 
the  uneducated  rejoice  as  those  who  have  seen 
a  vision.  For  example,  the  incarnation  in  spite 
of  its  name  is  not  chiefly  a  thing  of  the  flesh, 
but  a  thing  of  the  person.  Suppose,  then,  as  a 
sort  of  commentary  on  the  statement  of  John, 
for  ourselves  and  for  others,  we  should  make  it 
read  as  one  of  the  later  paraphrases  does:  "And 

101 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

the  Word  became  a  Person.  The  Person  dwelt 
with  other  persons.  The  Person  was  full  of 
grace.  The  Person  was  full  of  truth.  The 
Person  was  full  of  reality.  And  other  persons 
saw  his  glory,  saw  it  at  close  range,  walking 
around  among  them,  making  a  new  kind  of 
Person  visible.  And  they  knew  where  he  got 
his  glory,  and  little  by  little  the  life  of  this 
Person  became  the  light  of  other  persons." 
That  sounds  as  if  it  might  be  the  biography  of 
a  "Sky  Pilot"  or  the  story  of  a  "Singular  Life." 
The  Word  of  God  became  a  man,  the  message 
became  a  living  epistle,  a  real  letter,  a  true 
letter,  a  love  letter.  And  other  men  read  and 
knew  where  it  came  from  and  where  it  got 
those  qualities.  Incarnation  does  not  appear  to 
be  some  far  off,  individual,  isolated,  closed  event 
in  the  light  of  such  words  as  these.  Maybe 
under  this  influence,  some  day,  "Such  a  man  as 
this  will  arise  in  me  and  the  man  I  am  will 
cease  to  be." 

One  day  that  other  Minister  went  into  the 
village  church  at  Nazareth,  his  home  town, 
where  he  had  been  brought  up.  It  was  not  a 
town  to  be  proud  of.  If  you  came  from  such  a 
place,  you  probably  tell  strangers  you  came 
from  near  New  Haven  or  some  other  such  place, 
half  way  between  Albany  and  Boston.  That 
village  church  was  probably  about  as  uninter- 

102 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INCARNATION 

esting  as  any  modern  church  in  any  small  town. 
The  people,  to  quote  the  late  Dr.  Storrs,  were 
doubtless  "dull  and  respectable"  and  doubtless 
"respectable  and  dull."  You  will  think  your- 
self buried  when  you  become  pastor  of  such  a 
church.  A  call  to  one  will  hardly  seem  provi- 
dential; an  appointment  to  such  a  church  will 
be  regarded  as  just  ground  for  denouncing  the 
episcopacy  as  an  invention  of  the  devil.  When 
a  bishop  sends  a  recent  graduate  to  such  a  town 
as  Nazareth  it  is  quite  proper  to  call  the  bishop 
a  prelate  and  to  rebel  against  ecclesiastical  au- 
thority and  officialism,  against  a  system  that 
makes  such  things  possible.  But  that  other 
One  went  to  Nazareth  one  day  and  went  into 
the  local  meetinghouse.  Let  your  imagination 
play  upon  the  scene.  You  will  meet  it  all.  It 
was  what  we  call  an  ordinary  congregation.  It 
did  not  expect  any  mighty  thing  to  happen. 
Such  congregations  never  do,  nor  do  ministers 
to  such  congregations.  Anyhow,  the  people  did 
not  expect  it  to  happen  right  there  in  their 
town  before  their  eyes  with  one  of  their  own 
neighbor's  sons.  Somebody  handed  him  the  roll 
of  the  old  prophet.  He  opened  to  certain  fa- 
miliar words,  words  that  had  once  been  full  of 
life,  words  that  had  become  a  dead  letter.  The 
priests  could  drone  those  words  out  without 
waking  anybody  from  his   Sabbath   sleep,   or 

103 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

quickening  anyone's  pulse  rate.  You  can  do  it 
now.  You  can  take  all  the  emphasis  off  the 
personal  terms  and  every  bit  of  color  out  of  the 
immortal  sentences.  Or  you  can  do  a  worse 
thing  still,  the  worst  thing  going  on  in  the 
modern  ministry:  you  can  utterly  detach  your- 
self from  your  message  so  that  it  will  have 
small  meaning  for  you  or  anyone  because  it  has 
small  meaning  in  you.  You  can  take  a  word  of 
Christ  as  though  it  had  meaning  only  for  him 
and  none  at  all  for  you.  That  is  one  way  dead 
letters  are  made.  Literature  comes  from  life 
and  lives  only  in  life. 

Now,  that  other  young  Minister  took  that 
dead  letter  up  into  his  living  hands  and  all  at 
once  it  began  to  breathe  and  glow  and  live 
there  in  that  old  synagogue.  He  put  the  em- 
phasis where  it  belonged,  upon  the  personal 
terms  and  personal  relations:  "The  Spirit  of 
the  Lord  is  upon  me,"  he  said,  and  no  one 
doubted  upon  whom  it  was.  "Because  he  hath 
anointed  me,"  he  went  on,  while  the  heavens 
opened  upon  a  man  touched  by  God's  own 
touch.  "To  give  all  sorts  of  mankind,  deaf, 
blind,  imprisoned,  poor,  a  chance,"  he  con- 
tinued until  the  walls  fell  down  and  all  the 
human  helplessness  and  need  in  the  world  were 
right  there  where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  was 
falling  on  a  man.    God  was  getting  into  it,  as 

104 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INCARNATION 

the  student  said  on  the  train.  Then  this  young 
Nazarene  said,  quietly  and  confidently:  "This 
day  is  this  scripture  fulfilled."  This  written 
word  is  become  a  living  word,  this  printed  thing 
has  become  a  personal  thing  and  is  going  to 
walk  around  into  the  jails,  the  asylums,  and 
the  slums.  And  at  such  low  ebb  were  expecta- 
tion and  faith  in  that  congregation  that  the 
people  wondered  and  shook  their  heads  and 
began  to  talk  about  his  folks.  They  no  more 
expected  such  things  to  happen  to  a  man  from 
Nazareth  than  the  usual  congregation  would  ex- 
pect it  to  happen  to  a  man  from  the  theological 
seminary.  A  display  of  scholarship,  or  even 
foolishness,  they  might  look  for,  but  for  nothing 
like  this.  But  there  are  moods,  moods  which 
ought  to  be  constant,  in  which  a  minister  can- 
not read  that  story  with  composure.  Who  was 
he,  and  who  are  we,  that  that  thing  which  hap- 
pened to  him  should  not  happen  to  us.^^  What 
chance  is  humanity  going  to  get  unless  the 
Spirit  does  fall  upon  us  as  it  did  upon  him? 
Centuries  and  countries  have  nothing  to  do  with 
it.  "The  wind  always  bloweth  where  it  listeth 
and  maketh  kin  of  holy  souls."  Still  upon  us, 
as  upon  him,  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  must 
fall  if  we  are  to  proclaim  any  acceptable 
years  of  the  Lord,  if  we  are  to  heal  any  broken 
hearted,  if  we  are  to  open  any  blind  eyes  or  deaf 

105 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OP  JESUS  CHRIST 

ears.    Everything  in  any  ministry  depends  upon 
that. 

Did  you  ever  think  what  you  would  have 
done  if  you  had  been  sitting  in  the  synagogue 
that  day,  or  can  you  now  imagine  what  you 
would  do  if  all  at  once  the  essential  scene  should 
be  repeated  right  here  in  this  chapel  .^^  Of  course 
you  are  not  "dull  and  respectable"  like  that 
older  group.  You  would  do  something  besides 
rub  your  eyes  and  make  empty  remarks  about 
Joseph's  family.  But  if  you  were  like  many 
modern  congregations,  you  would  be  likely  to 
fear  some  new  fanaticism,  some  serious  dis- 
turbance of  the  sanctified  social  order,  and 
conclude  that  you  would  better  wait  and  see 
how  he  turns  out,  whether  he  is  going  to  be 
safe  or  not.  But  even  reading  the  story,  across 
the  years,  there  are  men,  some  of  them  no 
longer  young,  who  feel  in  their  bones  that  if 
they  had  been  in  that  older  group  they  would 
have  scandalized  the  orderly  proceedings  by 
leaping  to  their  feet,  waving  their  caps,  and 
crying  out  loyally  to  that  other  One,  "We  are 
with  you;  if  that  is  the  Spirit  and  the  program, 
we  are  with  you."  It  would  not  have  been  pru- 
dent, nor  conventional;  it  would  have  offended 
the  standing  order,  but  many  of  us  have  shouted 
ourselves  hoarse  for  far  less  cause.  And  I  would 
feel  a  lot  better  about  our  ministry  if  this  sort 

106 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INCARNATION 

of  thing  were  more  universal  in  it,  or  if  our 
response  to  this  experience  and  our  sense  of 
kinship  with  the  central  figure  in  it  were  alto- 
gether universal.  He  is  the  point  of  contact 
between  divine  power,  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord, 
and  all  human  need.  In  him  the  Spirit  gets  a 
chance  to  serve,  and  humanity  a  chance  to  be 
saved.  Really  I  know  no  better  conception  of 
a  true  ministry  than  that.  It  is  not  reverence 
to  set  this  case  apart;  it  is  both  wisdom  and 
reverence  to  get  ourselves  as  far  into  it  as  we 
can.  This  is  the  true  ordination  both  as  to 
source  and  purpose. 

We  are  thinking  of  the  incarnation,  in  its 
practical  personal  phases,  thinking  of  our  min- 
istry in  the  terms  and  experiences  of  the  Mas- 
ter's, never  forgetting  his  unique  place  and 
character.  And  the  record  is  so  rich,  for  our 
special  purposes,  that  we  hardly  know  what  to 
take  and  what  to  leave.  When  we  read  the 
record  with  this  in  mind  we  are  amazed  at  its 
fullness  and  suggestiveness.  Take  that  simple 
story  told  by  Peter  in  the  house  of  Cornelius, 
"how  God  anointed  Jesus  of  Nazareth  with  the 
Holy  Spirit  and  with  power";  and  how  he  "went 
about  doing  good,"  and  curing  all  who  were 
under  the  power  of  the  devil,  because  "God 
was  with  him."  That  sounds  like  a  description 
of  a  minister's  work  or  a  missionary's.    Indeed, 

107 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

there  is  a  story  from  the  mission  field  that 
breaks  right  in  at  this  point.  There  was  an 
EngHsh  missionary  in  India  who  always  had 
trouble  with  his  accounts  and  finances.  He  was 
not  at  all  a  capable  business  man.  He  spent  all 
his  money  for  missionary  work,  but  not  accord- 
ing to  the  plans.  He  got  his  accounts  mixed 
and  could  not  balance  his  books.  And,  of 
course,  that  could  not  be  endured.  Unless  a 
missionary  or  a  minister  is  capable  of  double- 
entry  bookkeeping  he  has  no  capacity  at  all 
except  for  mischief.  So  many  seem  to  think. 
Many  congregations  would  apparently  rather 
have  a  business  man's  administration  than  to 
have  a  true  prophet  in  their  pulpit.  This  poor 
missionary  was  dismissed  as  being  unfit  for 
missionary  work,  whereas  he  was  only  unfit  for 
bookkeeping.  He  went  off  alone  to  a  section 
where  he  would  not  be  bothered  by  accounts. 
"Several  years  later  a  woman  was  visiting  a 
distant  village  in  the  jungle.  She  tried  to  make 
the  simple  village  folk  understand  what  manner 
of  person  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was.  She  told 
them  how  he  was  the  poor  man's  friend,  how  he 
used  to  eat  with  them  and  visit  their  homes, 
how  he  used  to  go  about  healing  wherever 
there  was  sickness,  how  the  children  used  to 
run  after  him  in  the  street  and  clamber  about 
his  knees.    Her  description  seemed  to  meet  with 

108 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INCARNATION 

an  unusually  intelligent  response;  and  as  she 
finished  some  one  exclaimed,  *Miss  Sahib,  we 
know  him  well;  he  has  been  living  here  for 
years!'  Amazed,  the  woman  discovered  that 
this  missionary  had  settled  there  on  his  own 
account.  It  was  he  who  fetched  the  old  men 
and  women  their  water  and  their  food.  Where 
anyone  was  sick  it  was  he  who  would  sit  outside 
the  door  until  evening  and  then  come  in  to 
watch  through  the  night.  When  plague  and 
cholera  visited  the  village  he  was  the  intrepid 
nurse.  In  the  old  man  who  could  not  keep 
books  the  people  of  that  village  had  seen  and 
recognized  Jesus  Christ"  (Robinson:  The  Inter- 
pretation of  the  Character  of  Christ,  pages  21, 
22). 

Would  anyone  hearing  a  simple  description  of 
the  daily  activities  and  spirit  of  Jesus  be  re- 
minded of  you,  do  you  think?  Would  anybody 
say,  hearing  such  description,  "We  know  him 
well;  he  has  been  living  here  for  years"?  Have 
we  stressed  the  miracles  Jesus  performed  until 
we  have  come  to  think  of  him  chiefly  as  a 
miracle- worker?  Have  we  failed  to  see  that  the 
most  significant  thing  is  not  the  occasional,  ex- 
traordinary deed,  but  the  constant  kindness  and 
beauty  and  spirit  of  his  life?  He  did  not  go 
around  doing  wonders  all  the  time,  but  he  did 
go  about  doing  good  all  the  time,  and  that  was 

109 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

a  wonder  in  his  world.  Because  we  cannot  re- 
peat his  miracles  we  are  inclined  to  think  we 
cannot  repeat  his  life  at  all.  But  the  power  to 
work  a  miracle  would  not  be  nearly  so  useful  a 
power  to  put  into  our  hands  as  the  power  to  go 
about  doing  good,  which  is  put  into  them.  The 
power  to  multiply  loaves  and  fishes  in  an  emer- 
gency is  good,  but  the  spirit  that  refused  to 
make  bread  for  himself,  to  use  his  power  for  his 
own  benefit,  and  did  make  bread  for  others,  did 
use  power  in  their  behalf,  is  the  real  value.  And 
that  spirit  is  for  us  as  for  him.  If  it  be  not  in  us, 
then  he  has  no  ministry  left  in  the  world.  We 
stand  in  awe  before  the  cross,  as  we  ought,  but 
we  ought  to  understand  it  perfectly  from  our 
own  attitude  and  spirit.  It  ought  not  to  be  a 
blind  mystery  to  us.  We  ought  to  know  what  it 
means  to  save  others  and  not  ourselves.  The 
incarnation  is  a  blank  perplexity  to  a  man  or  a 
minister  who  comes  to  be  ministered  unto  and 
not  to  minister  to  the  point  of  giving  his  very 
life. 

Why  do  we  get  the  whole  business  of  the  imi- 
tation of  Christ  off  its  feet.^^  Why  do  so  many 
think  they  exalt  him  when  they  only  remove 
him.f^  There  used  to  be  a  test  of  orthodoxy  as 
to  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible,  to  the  effect 
that  it  differed  from  all  other  inspiration,  not 
only   in   degree,   but   in   kind,   as   though   the 

110 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INCARNATION 

farther  away  we  could  get  it  the  diviner  it 
would  be.  Surely,  we  know  better  than  that 
now.  Life  is  not  helped  by  its  distance  from 
Jesus,  but  by  its  nearness  to  him  and  his  near- 
ness to  it.  The  operations  of  the  Spirit,  the 
experiences  that  were  good  in  his  life  must  be 
good  in  ours.  Kindness  is  not  one  thing  in  him 
and  something  else  in  us.  His  deeds  were  not 
done  that  they  might  have  a  homiletic  or  apolo- 
getic value.  They  were  not  chiefly  evidences, 
but  examples,  not  chiefly  for  sermonic  use,  but 
for  daily  use.  Our  interest  is  not  professional 
alone,  but  personal. 

What  has  been  said  about  his  deeds  applies 
equally  to  his  speech.  What  are  the  two  favorite 
texts  about  his  utterances?  "Never  man  spake 
like  this  man,"  is  one,  and  the  other  is,  "The 
common  people  heard  him  gladly."  And  these 
two  sentences  are  used  to  prove  that  by  the 
character  of  his  speech  Jesus  showed  himself  to 
be  divine.  And  we  compare  his  utterances  with 
the  sayings  of  other  religious  masters,  to  show 
how  superior  his  are.  We  usually  speak  of  their 
originality,  their  depth,  and  their  disclosures. 
Now,  of  course,  no  one  else  ever  had  spoken  as 
he  did,  and  no  wonder  the  mass  of  the  people 
heard  him  with  delight.  It  was  the  world's 
tragedy  that  no  one  had  ever  spoken  to  men  as 
Jesus  did,  that  no  one  had  ever  brought  them 

111 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

such  good  news  as  he  brought  them.  It  is 
enough  to  make  us  weep  to  read  how  in  Naz- 
areth's synagogue  those  old  saints  wondered  at 
the  gracious  words  he  said.  To  such  a  pass 
rehgious  speech  had  come  that  such  words  as 
he  spoke,  such  gracious  words,  such  hopeful 
words,  such  loving  words,  amazed  them.  And 
to  such  a  pass  had  caste  and  a  false  privilege  in 
religion  come  that  the  masses  got  their  first 
delighted  chance  at  life  in  Jesus's  words.  No 
wonder  they  heard  him  gladly.  Poor  John  the 
Baptist  lost  heart,  got  clear  down  into  the 
depths  about  religion,  when  he  was  in  prison. 
You  remember  how  Jesus  cheered  him  up.  Go 
back  and  tell  John,  he  said,  that  I  am  doing 
good  deeds  and  telling  good  news  to  everybody. 
We  forget  the  difference  between  that  year  and 
this,  and  we  vainly  try  to  make  out  that  the 
common  people  heard  him  with  such  delight 
because  of  the  way  he  spoke,  because  of  his 
oratory  and  rhetoric.  And  then  we  go  silly  in 
our  effort  to  talk  simply,  to  talk  down  to  the 
common  people.  But  the  common  people  heard 
him  with  such  delight,  heard  him  as  India's 
outcasts  do  to-day,  not  because  he  used  words 
of  one  syllable,  or  used  his  voice  with  an  orator's 
skill,  but  because  he  opened  the  straight  and 
shining  way  of  hope  and  life,  of  love  and  liberty, 
to  men,  men  who  had  been  crushed  and  hope- 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INCARNATION 

less  for  a  thousand  years.  It  was  amazing  then 
because  they  had  never  heard  or  seen  it  on  this 
wise  before.  In  a  land  familiar  with  the  hard, 
inhuman  lines  of  caste,  or  special  privilege  sanc- 
tioned by  religion,  buttressed  by  ecclesiastical 
authority,  and,  as  men  thought,  approved  by 
God  himself,  a  message  like  the  message  of 
Jesus  turns  the  world  upside  down  and  right 
side  up.  It  amazed,  perplexed,  and  enraged  the 
privileged  classes  then  as  it  does  now.  It 
stirred  new  depths  in  those  who  never  had  had 
a  word  of  hope  and  privilege  spoken  to  them. 
It  was  wonderful  then,  but  after  nineteen  cen- 
turies there  ought  to  be  a  whole  Christian  min- 
istry speaking  as  he  spoke.  And  instead  of 
anybody  being  surprised  when  the  common  peo- 
ple hear  a  minister  gladly  now,  there  ought  to 
be  amazement  if  a  minister  speaks  so  that  they 
are  not  glad.  The  tendencies,  religious  and  so- 
cial, that  had  hardened  into  the  conditions  that 
Jesus  met  are  just  as  present  to-day  as  they 
were  during  the  centuries  before  he  came.  The 
caste  system  is  not  confined  to  India.  Our 
ministry  is  to  our  age  and  its  conditions  just  as 
the  ministry  of  Jesus  was  to  every  age.  He 
won  the  praise  of  the  officers,  he  awoke  the 
rapture  of  the  multitudes,  not  by  the  original- 
ity, nor  the  scholastic  profundity,  nor  the  elo- 
quence with  which  he  spoke,  but  by  that  gospel 

113 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

of  God  which  he  spoke  in  love,  love  for  the 
message  and  love  for  those  to  whom  he  spoke 
it.  The  democracy  of  that  gospel  is  not  given 
to  it  by  popular  vote.  It  is  democratic  because 
it  is  from  God,  the  Father  of  us  all.  We  go  far 
astray  when  we  praise  the  superior  speech  of 
our  Master  and  rhapsodize  over  the  way  that 
speech  was  received,  as  though  he  and  it  stood 
far  apart  from  us  and  our  speech.  Our  praise  of 
him  is  of  small  value  unless  we  have  caught,  not 
the  externals  of  his  speech,  but  the  spirit  behind 
it  and  in  it.  It  is  small  matter  what  we  say  or 
how  we  say  it  if  our  speech  and  our  preaching 
are  not  in  the  same  spirit  as  were  his. 

This  is  a  very  different  thing  from  so-called 
popular  preaching,  which  some  despise  and 
others  affect.  There  is  nothing  more  pitiable 
than  an  unpopular  preacher,  except  a  popular 
preacher  who  has  won  popularity  by  the  ways 
of  the  demagogue.  Many  a  man  gets  a  tre- 
mendous hearing  for  everything  except  the  gos- 
pel of  Jesus  Christ.  Some  affect  indifference  to 
popular  favor,  declaring  that  they  will  speak 
the  truth  whether  men  will  hear  or  whether 
they  will  forbear.  But  for  a  minister  of  Jesus 
Christ  there  is  no  popularity  worth  having  ex- 
cept the  kind  he  had,  won  as  his  was  won.  And 
there  is  no  opposition  to  be  proud  of  except 
such  as  he  suffered  and  for  like  causes.     Both 

114 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INCARNATION 

popular  favor  and  popular  opposition  may  come 
to  us  on  un-Christlike  grounds.  They  turn  to 
bitterness  before  the  end  of  the  day  comes.  All 
this  seems  so  far  from  those  rich  words  about 
our  Master:  "Never  man  spake  like  this  man." 
"The  common  people  heard  him  gladly."  It 
was  not  because  he  was  orator  or  agitator,  but 
because  he  said  the  things  best  worth  saying  to 
men,  and  said  them  as  well  as  they  could  be 
said.  What  he  said  and  how  he  said  it  were 
both  of  a  piece  with  all  the  rest  of  his  life  and 
character. 

Do  you  propose  to  speak  as  no  one  else  does 
in  your  town.^^  Do  you  propose  to  speak  so 
that  people  will  hear  you  with  something  of  this 
ancient  delight?  Who  else  should  speak  as  you 
do?  Who  else  has  such  a  message  as  yours? 
Who  else  has  such  a  motive  and  purpose  behind 
him  as  you?  Who  else  has  such  subject  and 
such  object  as  yours?  Who,  so  much  as  you, 
cares  alike  for  truth  and  people,  so  that  you 
will  not  speak  falsely  and  will  not  speak  indif- 
ferently or  academically?  Who  in  this  world 
comes  by  his  speech  into  such  a  fellowship  as 
the  fellowship  you  have  with  that  other  One 
in  striking  all  the  chords  of  human  life  with  the 
magic  power  of  Christlike  speech?  Nothing 
takes  its  place,  nothing  rivals  it.  Woe  to  the 
man  who  regards  it  lightly,  uses  it  carelessly,  or 

115 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

treats  it  indifferently.  We  are  a  speaking  peo- 
ple, particularly  a  speaking  profession.  If  it 
was  important  that  holy  men  in  olden  time 
should  be  moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit  before 
they  spoke  and  as  they  spoke,  it  is  important 
still,  even  more  important  now  than  then.  That 
Christ  should  have  spoken  in  his  wonderful 
way,  that  men  near  him  should  have  done  it, 
must  not  be  regarded  simply  as  miracles  on 
which  we  can  look  back.  We  speaking  men 
can  only  be  saved  from  being  sounding  brass 
and  tinkling  cymbals  by  the  presence  in  us  of 
that  divine  power  which  made  their  speech  effec- 
tive and  gracious  and  which  alone  can  make 
ours  effective  and  gracious.  The  marvelous 
thing  about  the  speech  of  Jesus  was  the  temper, 
the  tone,  the  spirit  of  it.  If  by  papal  decree 
this  could  be  assured,  it  would  be  far  better 
than  the  infallibility  so  much  prized.  But  by 
contact  with  Jesus  in  the  Holy  Spirit  the  temper, 
the  tone,  the  Spirit  that  made  his  speech  what 
it  was  can  be  had.  Nay,  it  must  be  had.  What 
response,  then,  do  you  make  to  these  and  many 
other  words  spoken  there  in  the  brief  history  of 
that  other  Minister's  life.'^  Your  opinions  on 
many  subjects  are  important,  but  your  attitude 
to  this  is  crucial. 

It  is  only  saying  the  same  thing  in  slightly 
different  fashion  when  we  say  that  your  per- 

116 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INCARNATION 

sonal  reaction  to  the  experiences  of  Jesus  con- 
stitutes just  as  severe  a  test.     How  does  your 
life  respond  to  his?     We  are  always  looking 
and  sometimes  praying  for  light  upon  our  prob- 
lems.   We  are  not  quite  so  careful  to  acknowl- 
edge that  the  light  in  us  has  become  darkness. 
Really,  we  do  not  need  to  pray  for  any  more 
light  upon  certain  problems.     Our  lack  is  the 
lack  of  light  within  ourselves.     The  life  that 
was  in  him  has  not  become  light  within  us. 
We  praise  it  as  some  divine,  bright,  shining 
thing  far  off  yonder  in  time  and  space,  a  per- 
sonal wonder  that  once  surely  was.     But  we 
do  not  respond  to  it  as  "a  life  able  to  repeat 
itself — able  to  generate  life  in  those  who  give 
it  opportunity  and  room."    We  gladly  acknowl- 
edge the  marvelous  in  him — that  is  our  ortho- 
doxy.    We  do  not  expect  within  ourselves  the 
marvelous  from  him — that  is  our  unbelief.    His 
incarnation  as  revealing  a  type  of  personality 
never  before  seen,  never  since  seen,  we  put  at 
the  center  of  the  creed.    We  are  not  so  swift  to 
recognize  in  him  a  power  to  operate  upon  other 
men,  to  touch  them  to  new  issues,  to  tune  them 
to  divine  pitch,  to  transform  them  into  the 
same  image.     We  regard  his  incarnation  as  a 
revelation,  as  it  surely  is.    But  it  is  more.    It 
is  creative  and   dynamic.     That  such  a  per- 
sonality should  have  appeared  at  all  is  a  won- 

117 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

der  until  you  learn  what  God  is  like.  That  it 
should  have  appeared  without  any  power  to 
reproduce  itself  in  other  personalities  would  be 
a  blind  wonder.  He  would  not  mock  us  with 
mere  words,  or  baffle  us  with  a  dazzling  but 
impossible  ideal.  His  commandments  and 
promises  were  all  with  power. 

I  am  thinking  all  the  time,  you  see,  of  our 
ministry  in  the  light  of  his.  And  just  now  we 
are  forced  to  think  of  our  personalities  in  the 
light  of  his.  This,  after  all,  is  what  incarnation 
means,  for  the  earliest  question  about  the  min- 
istry is  the  question  of  the  minister.  We  cannot 
interpret  our  calling  in  terms  of  law,  or  of 
doctrine,  in  terms  of  ecclesiasticism  or  in  terms 
of  orders.  We  can  only  do  it  in  the  terms  of 
personality.  James  Martineau  once  said,  "Jesus 
Christ  shows  us  in  living  definition  what  the 
Christian  ought  to  be."  Make  all  the  objection 
you  wish  to  that  statement,  for  our  purposes  it 
contains  the  supreme  thing  in  this  realm.  Per- 
haps the  ministry  has  no  larger  philosophical 
task  than  the  recovery  of  the  world  from  its 
mad  departure  from  the  high  truth  of  per- 
sonalism.  The  universe  is  being  thought  of  in 
terms  of  law  and  in  terms  of  matter,  or  in  terms 
of  force.  The  chemist  is  a  prisoner  in  his  own 
laboratory.  The  supreme  thing  is  the  laws  and 
not  the  man.     We  have  come  to  explain  mir- 

118 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INCARNATION 

acles,  the  miracles  of  Jesus,  by  showing  how 
they  could  have  happened  or  could  have  seemed 
to  happen,  without  destroying  the  sacred  laws 
of  the  material  universe.  Now,  as  ministers  we 
are  greatly  interested  in  a  regular  order,  a 
world  in  which  sun  and  seasons  can  be  relied 
upon.  A  capricious  universe  would  be  utterly 
intolerable.  But  our  world  is  not  chiefly  the 
world  of  matter  or  of  material  law,  but  the 
world  of  men  and  women,  of  children  growing 
to  youth,  of  youth  growing  to  maturity;  the 
world  of  free,  tempted,  struggling  persons;  the 
world  of  wise,  foolish,  good,  bad,  partly  good, 
partly  bad  persons;  the  world  of  a  free  personal 
God,  free  in  his  universe;  the  world  into  which 
Jesus  Christ  came  showing  what  personality 
truly  is;  the  world  of  a  personal  ministry  with 
personal  character,  and  personal  relations  to- 
ward God  and  men.  No  other  occupation  of 
men — not  teaching,  not  medicine,  not  law,  not 
anything — is  more  personal  or  more  dependent 
upon  personality  than  is  the  ministry.  Its 
immediate  goal  is  the  making  of  saints,  who  are 
really  persons  like  Jesus  Christ.  Its  method  is 
personal  chiefly  and  not  chiefly  institutional.  Its 
reliance  is  upon  personality,  its  strength  is  in 
its  personal  God.  I  know  there  has  been  a 
reaction  against  an  ugly  individualism,  but  let 
us  not  identify  an  ugly  individualism  with  a 

119 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

Christlike  personality.  Against  this  latter  there 
is  no  law. 

The  good  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  must  have 
the  qualities  shown  in  the  incarnation,  he  must 
practice  the  principles,  the  motives,  and,  in 
essence,  the  methods  of  the  incarnation.  This 
is  not  simply  a  problem  of  theology  or  of  reli- 
gion in  general.  It  is  a  problem  of  our  high 
calling  in  peculiar  measure.  It  is  not  simply 
personal  devotion  to  him,  nor  an  orthodox  at- 
titude to  him  as  historic  and  living.  This  thing 
that  I  am  trying  to  say  goes  into  the  depths  of 
our  being  and  our  ministry  and  relates  us 
modern  ministers  to  Him  whose  we  are  and 
whom  we  gladly  serve,  so  that  we  can  say  with 
Paul,  "Christ  liveth  in  me."  The  ministry  is 
not  privileged  to  lord  it  over  God's  heritage. 
Our  election  is  not  to  comfort,  to  position,  to 
authority,  or  to  ecclesiastical  dignity.  We  are 
elect  to  that  ministry  which  does  not  please 
itself,  which  comes  not  to  be  ministered  unto 
but  to  minister,  whose  meat  is  to  do  the  will  of 
God,  which  is  in  demonstration  of  the  spirit 
and  of  power,  power  to  minister;  which  pos- 
sesses and  uses  the  personal  qualities  possessed 
and  used  by  him. 

How  do  we  get  such  a  personality?  By  living 
with  him,  until  we  bear  not  the  denominational 
nor  the  university  mark,  but  until  we  bear  the 

120 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INCARNATION 

marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus  in  our  characters  and 
Hves.  We  are  not  unwilHng  to  be  identified 
with  our  denomination,  to  be  told  that  we 
preach  Hke  a  Presbyterian  or  a  Methodist.  We 
are  rather  proud  to  be  picked  out  as  Yale  men, 
or  Princeton  men,  or  Wesley  an  men,  or  Harvard 
men.  But  there  was  a  small  group  once  of 
whom  it  was  said,  men  "took  knowledge  of 
them  that  they  had  been  with  Jesus."  Living 
with  him,  they  had  come  to  bear  his  mark.  It 
will  have  that  effect  again  and  it  will  have  it 
everywhere.  The  incarnation  is  not  exhausted 
by  being  a  revelation.  It  is  also  a  living  per- 
sonal force.  It  is  fulfilled  by  being  such  a  force. 
It  has  vital  relation  even  beyond  the  redemp- 
tion Jesus  came  to  bring  or  the  truth  he  came 
to  teach.  Elsewhere  I  have  said  in  substance:* 
The  significance  of  the  incarnation  for  per- 
sonality will  bear  an  emphasis  it  has  not  often 
had.  In  him  we  live  and  in  him  we  move. 
With  him  we  live  and  at  last  like  him  we  live. 
We  must  learn  our  truth  from  him.  How  else 
can  we  teach  it?  We  must  receive  our  life 
from  him.  How  else  can  we  impart  that  life? 
The  poorest  thing  the  minister  has  to  impart  is 
his  own  poor  life.  We  have  talked  of  Jesus  as 
our  model  and  pattern.  But  he  is  more.  A 
pattern  might  only  mock  us.    Somehow  power 

I  See  In  the  School  of  Chriat,  Chapter  VI. 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

must  pass  over  from  him  to  us,  character  from 
him  to  us.  Our  efforts  to  imitate  him  must  be 
more  than  matched  by  his  efforts  to  convey 
his  Hfe  to  us.  Of  course  this  has  some  mystery 
and  some  mysticism  in  it,  but  let  Us  not  be 
afraid  of  either.  We  can  stand  mystery  better 
than  inadequacy. 

Hold  two  ideas  clearly  as  we  close  for  to-day. 
Personality  is  more  important  than  things,  and 
personality  means  much  more  than  one  qual- 
ity. "From  the  days  of  Socrates  the  problem 
of  the  school  has  been  the  schoolmaster."  The 
man  does  count  for  more  than  the  plant.  The 
miserable  philosophy  of  materialism  and  force 
and  machinery  which  we  apply  to  the  universe 
gets  naturally  into  our  own  lives.  If  the  physi- 
cal universe  bulks  large  and  the  personal  God 
bulks  small,  it  tends  to  make  the  little  universe, 
your  universe,  bulk  large  and  the  personal  ele- 
ment bulk  small.  A  minister  showed  some 
friends  his  new  church,  a  wonderful  plant, 
easily  got  by  reason  of  much  wealth  being 
available.  One  of  the  friends  was  a  keen,  sober, 
somewhat  disturbing  man.  He  said,  kindly  but 
earnestly,  to  that  proud  minister:  "The  plant 
seems  rather  larger  than  the  person."  You  will 
be  tempted,  our  whole  age  is  tempted,  to  lay 
stress  upon  having  a  maximum  of  things,  in- 
stead of  a  maximum  of  manhood.    I  once  heard 

122 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INCARNATION 

Henry  Ward  Beecher  explaining  why,  when  they 
built  Plymouth  Church  Mission,  they  made  it 
so  much  finer  than  Plymouth  Church,  the  plain 
old  Plymouth  of  forty  years  ago.  The  great 
preacher  said,  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye  and  a 
smile  on  his  face,  "Old  Plymouth  does  not  need 
much  else,  it  has  me."  Under  the  gentle  humor 
there  was  a  genuine  truth.  Certain  men  do 
illustrate  what  can  be  accomplished  in  the  min- 
istry by  a  maximum  of  personality.  Why  mul- 
tiply illustrations?  Why  go  beyond  that  one 
figure  ever  before  us  as  we  study  our  task? 
And  why  miss  the  supreme  lesson  that  his  life 
brings  for  our  personal  lives  as  well  as  for  our 
world-philosophy — the  supreme  value  of  per- 
sonality? Wealth  can  be  matched  with  equal 
or  larger  wealth;  splendor  of  plant  can  be 
equaled  or  surpassed;  elaborate  organization  can 
be  met  and  overcome  in  kind.  The  enemy  of 
the  ministry  is  very  rich,  very  fertile,  very 
enterprising  and  resourceful  in  all  these  ways. 
He  dearly  loves  to  get  a  ministry  in  an  attitude 
of  utter  dependence  upon  might  and  power,  for 
he  is  familiar  with  these  forces  and  knows  how 
to  meet  them.  But  the  one  thing  he  cannot 
imitate,  nor  duplicate,  nor  match,  nor  conquer 
is  a  Christlike  personality.  He  knows  that 
such  a  personality  cannot  be  resisted,  that  it 
draws  men  across  all  barriers  of  race,  creed, 

123 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

and  condition,  that  "God  gives  such  personality 
a  spiritual  touch  which  opens  the  hearts  of 
men,"  that  such  a  "light  shines  in  the  darkness, 
and  the  darkness  never  overpowers  it."  The 
place  you  get  for  your  ministry  is  as  nothing  to 
the  question  as  to  the  kind  of  men  you  will  be 
in  your  ministry.  A  man's  life,  or  a  minister's 
life,  does  not  consist  in  the  abundance  of  the 
things  he  possesses  but  in  the  abundance  of  the 
life  he  possesses. 

And,  finally,  personality  as  seen  in  the  in- 
carnation, and  as  to  be  repeated  in  us  while 
we  practice  the  incarnation,  is  not  a  solitary 
quality.  It  is  not  even  ability,  nor  that  mod- 
ern idol,  efficiency.  The  danger  of  submitting 
oneself  to  a  masterful  teacher  is  the  danger  of 
one-sidedness.  "Jesus  treated  personality  as  a 
whole."  Other  masters  base  their  systems  upon 
type.  Our  wretched  denominational  types  are 
partly  due  to  this  narrowness  and  foolishness. 
We  give  them  a  kind  of  divine  sanction  as 
though  they  were  a  special  gift  of  God  to  us. 
We  are  fond  of  individuality  which  we  interpret 
in  terms  of  peculiarity,  as  though  this  were  a 
virtue.  We  develop  our  usages  along  the  lines 
of  these  specialties.  We  build  denominations 
on  an  eccentricity  just  as  we  build  personal 
character  upon  a  trait.  We  successfully  save 
the  world  from  monotony,  but  that  is  about  all. 

124 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INCARNATION 

Now,  our  personal  ideal,  our  professional 
model,  is  Jesus.  We  aim  to  have  reproduced  in 
us  not  only  the  mind  that  was  in  him,  but  the 
qualities  that  were  united  and  balanced  in  him. 
Those  qualities  made  him  universal.  They  lifted 
him  above  racial  and  national  narrowness  and 
difference.  Never  in  any  age  were  racial  and 
national  assertions  so  emphatic  and  exaggerated, 
so  strident  and  offensive  as  now.  It  almost 
seems  as  if  the  world  had  reacted  into  tribal 
days  and  conditions.  The  world's  relations  are 
intolerable.  The  agents  of  world  unity  are  the 
good  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  live  again 
as  he  lived,  reveal  again  the  life  he  revealed. 
The  incarnation  is  not  an  event  closed  and 
ended.  You  are  to  be  witnesses  of  him,  his 
living  epistles,  his  message,  living  and  active, 
complete  in  him,  and  helping  to  make  and 
show  that  new  humanity  which  is  renewed  in 
the  likeness  of  its  creator. 

At  the  beginning  he  said,  "I  must  be  about 
my  Father's  business."  At  the  end  he  declared, 
"I  have  finished  the  work  which  thou  gavest 
me  to  do."  From  beginning  to  end  of  his 
earthly  life  he  lived  as  a  redeeming  God  should 
live  among  men.  The  lines  upward  were  un- 
broken, the  lines  outward  and  downward  always 
perfect.  Men  beheld  the  glory  of  it,  the  glory 
of  a  person  full  of  grace  and  truth.    They  did 

125 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

once.  Do  they  now  in  him  and  others?  Will 
they  to-morrow  in  him  and  us?  Shall  men  see 
again  the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God? 
If  they, do,  they  will  be  glad  as  those  to  whom 
light  has  come  from  on  high. 


126 


LECTURE  IV 

THE   MINISTRY  OF  RECONCILIATION 

"We  are  ambassadors  for  Christ." 


LECTURE  IV 

THE   MINISTRY  OF  RECONCILIATION 

An  eminent  English  journalist  was  writing  a 
series  of  articles  on  Oxford  University.  While 
they  were  appearing  a  correspondent  wrote  him 
a  letter  with  this  request:  "Please  tell  us  what 
Oxford  is  to  the  man  who  is  in  earnest;  say  to 
General  Booth,  or  any  other  man  like  him  in 
the  earnestness  of  his  life."  The  journalist,  a 
loyal  son  of  Oxford,  made  faithful  attempt  to 
meet  this  desire.  It  seems  a  fair  request  to 
make,  to  make  of  us  as  we  are  trying  to  inter- 
pret our  ministry,  as  to  the  journalist  endeav- 
oring to  interpret  his  university.  What  is  the 
ministry  to  the  man  who  is  in  earnest,  the  man 
like  General  Booth,  or  Henry  Martyn,  or  Cole- 
ridge Patteson,  or  any  other  man  in  earnest, 
whether  in  the  ministry  or  not?  Maybe  that 
vision  of  a  man  in  earnest  is  as  good  as  any  as  a 
starting  point  for  to-day.  By  the  path  of 
earnestness  we  shall  come  into  the  heart  of 
that  ministry  which  is  all  the  time  in  our 
thoughts.  That  other  Minister  did  not  strive 
nor  cry,  nor  lift  up  his  voice;  his  earnestness 
was  not  vocal,  nor  perspiring  nor  self-conscious, 

129 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

but  the  zeal  of  the  Lord's  house  was  consuming 
him  all  the  days  of  his  life.  Have  you  ever 
tried  to  realize  the  feeling  of  Jesus  as  to  the 
necessity  that  was  laid  upon  him?  How  did  he 
feel  about  his  work?  The  sense  of  compulsion 
evidently  came  upon  him  early.  Boys  of  twelve 
are  not  expected  to  say  "I  must"  with  the  in- 
tense personal  emphasis  that  Jesus  used  in  the 
temple.  And  he  never  changed  the  emphasis 
and  never  lost  that  keen  sense  of  the  impera- 
tive. Earnestness  was  not  occasional  with  him, 
it  was  constant.  In  this,  as  in  all  other  mat- 
ters, his  life  was  all  of  one  piece.  Events 
crowd  one  another  in  his  life,  but  events  were 
always  more  than  events.  They  were  principles 
also.  The  incarnation  is  both  an  event  and  a 
principle.  The  atonement  is  both  an  event,  an 
occurrence  culminating  in  time,  and  a  principle 
lasting  through  all  time.  All  the  while,  every 
day,  whether  he  was  speaking  or  doing,  his 
ministry  was  a  ministry  which  revealed  God,  a 
ministry  of  redemption,  a  ministry  of  incarna- 
tion, a  ministry  of  reconciliation.  It  means 
that  at  least  to  the  man  who  is  in  earnest. 

This,  of  course,  is  not  a  study  in  the  objective 
nature  of  the  atonement,  but  in  the  spirit  of  it 
as  viewed  from  the  human  side.  Much  more  is 
unsaid  than  said.  This  is  only  an  effort  to  get 
hold  of  it  as  it  belongs  to  men  in  the  ministry  of 

130 


THE   MINISTRY  OF  RECONCILIATION 

reconciliation.  This  same  general  word  applies 
to  the  study  of  the  incarnation  and  other 
topics. 

It  is  an  occasion  for  real  regret  that  the  living 
principle  of  reconciliation  should  have  been  so 
exclusively  confined,  even  in  our  thought  of 
Jesus,  to  his  death  on  the  cross.  And  it  is 
occasion  for  like  regret  that  the  conception  of 
atonement  thus  so  largely  limited  to  one  thing 
in  his  life  should  have  been  so  largely  confined 
to  him  alone;  that  the  permanent  principle  of 
atonement  should  have  been  regarded  as  ex- 
hausted in  that  single,  perfect,  outstanding  fact 
of  atonement.  The  work  of  Jesus  deserves  all 
the  emphasis  it  has  ever  received,  and  vastly 
more.  You  may  exhaust  your  vocabulary  in  the 
effort  to  state  what  he  did  for  us  men,  and  the 
story  will  not  be  fully  told.  He  was  what  no 
one  else  had  ever  been  or  has  ever  been.  He 
did  what  no  one  else  ever  did  or  could  do.  His 
life,  his  character,  and  his  work  well  deserve  to 
be  called  unique  and  divine,  because  this  they 
surely  were.  But  it  is  small  orthodoxy,  and  not 
large,  small  faith,  not  large,  that  regards  the 
life  and  work  of  Jesus  as  having  closed  and  ex- 
hausted the  principles  of  incarnation  and  recon- 
ciliation. There  is  a  real  difference  between 
what  is  perfect  and  what  is  exhaustive,  as  he 
perfectly  illustrates.    He  made  things  living  and 

131 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

vital  for  all  life  by  their  perfect  exemplification 
in  his  own  life.  The  events  centering  in  him 
and  perfectly  exhibited  in  him  are  not  dead 
events.  In  the  language  of  the  ritual,  "He 
suffered  death  upon  the  cross  for  our  redemp- 
tion; and  made  there,  by  his  oblation  of 
himself,  once  offered,  a  full,  perfect  and  suffi- 
cient sacrifice,  oblation  and  satisfaction  for  the 
sins  of  the  whole  world."  Upon  that  supreme 
truth,  that  supreme  event,  our  hope  of  forgive- 
ness and  life  rests.  The  cross  of  Jesus  stands 
there,  in  time,  upon  the  low  hill  outside  the 
gate.  This  is  at  once  our  faith  and  our  glad 
assurance.  But  that  ministry  of  reconciliation 
and  atonement,  perfect  as  it  was  in  itself,  is 
only  made  complete  through  the  centuries  in 
other  lives  and  ministries  of  reconciliation  and 
atonement.  As  one  has  said:  "The  atonement 
was  made  when  the  revelation  of  God  was  com- 
pleted upon  Calvary,  for  then  the  atoning  power 
came  fully  into  the  world;  but  the  realizing  of 
the  atonement  in  human  history  and  personal 
experience  is  the  work  of  Christ's  divine  spirit 
operating  in  our  hearts."  The  cross  is  not  wood 
that  is  dead,  but  a  tree  that  is  alive.  That 
other  Minister  planted  in  our  ministry  his  own 
eternal  principle  and  made  us  to  be  ambassa- 
dors and  ministers  of  reconciliation  in  the  holy 
succession.    For  the  principle  of  the  cross  is  a 

132 


THE   MINISTRY  OF  RECONCILIATION 

living  principle,  and  the  ministry  of  Jesus  is 
fulfilled  in  ministries  like  his  own  in  their  es- 
sential character  and  spirit.  This  goes  pretty 
deep  for  us,  but  it  went  pretty  deep  for  him. 
For  us  as  for  him  a  ministry  of  revelation  can 
only  be  made  perfect  in  a  ministry  of  reconcilia- 
tion. Revealing  the  truth  even  about  God  will 
carry  us  at  last,  as  it  carried  him,  into  the  crush 
of  reconciliation  and  crucifixion.  Good  minis- 
ters of  Jesus  Christ  must  "practice  the  atone- 
ment" as  well  as  the  incarnation,  or  fall  far 
short  of  fellowship  with  him  in  the  heights  and 
depths  of  his  life. 

But  that  is  a  general  statement,  requiring  to 
be  pressed  down  into  finer  folds.  What  would 
be  the  character  of  a  ministry  of  reconciliation? 
In  what  ways  can  or  should  the  atonement  be 
practiced.'^  Is  this  a  phrase  for  speech  or  does 
it  describe  a  real  working  principle.^  We  have 
enough  popular,  doctrinal  catch-words  without 
adding  this.  Let  us  look  into  this  as  clearly  as 
we  can.  Such  a  ministry  would  identify  itself 
with  Jesus  in  the  spirit  and  experiences  of  his 
ministry.  It  is  easier  to  approve  and  praise  his 
ministry  than  to  share  it.  Verbal  fellowship, 
doctrinal  fellowship  with  Jesus,  is  more  common 
and  more  comfortable  than  actual  fellowship 
with  his  vicarious  sufferings  and  experiences. 
The  mind  of  Jesus  is  the  wonder  of  the  ages. 

133 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

Having  the  mind  of  Jesus  leads  men  straight 
into  self-renunciation  like  his  own.  And  our 
fashion  is  to  admire  this  spirit  in  him,  to  grow 
eloquent  as  we  describe  it,  to  give  it  high  homi- 
letic  and  apologetic  value,  but  not  to  repeat  or 
reproduce  it.  Identification  with  Jesus  in  the 
spirit  and  experience  of  his  own  ministry  would 
"check  the  fever  of  self-will  and  reduce  the 
swollen  proportions  of  our  lower  selves,  mortify 
our  self-importance  and  vain  dignity,  and  re- 
press our  petty  ambitions."  This  spirit  in  him 
kept  him  from  grasping  at  certain  things  and 
led  him  all  the  time  into  that  sacrifice  of  self, 
that  denial  of  self  that  gave  character,  gave 
what  we  call  tragedy,  gave  beauty  and  transcen- 
dence, gave  exaltation  to  his  life  all  the  time. 
For  this  spirit  was  not  occasional  in  the  life  of 
that  other  Minister.  It  did  not  show  itself  just 
once  in  a  while  or  wholly  in  one  supreme  act. 
It  was  the  principle  and  practice  of  his  whole 
life.  He  bore  the  cross  long  before  Calvary 
came,  and  I  think  keeps  on  bearing  it, 

"Toiling  up  new  Calvaries  ever 

With  the  cross  that  turns  not  back.'* 

The  whole  story  is  shot  through  with  it.  Indi- 
vidual proof-texts  seem  almost  like  an  im- 
pertinence, as  though  an  atmosphere  could  be 
proved  or  needed  to  be.    In  the  Gospels  there  is 

nothing  else  to  breathe.     When  you  come  to 

134 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  RECONCILIATION 

Calvary  you  do  not  experience  a  change  of 
atmosphere  or  direction.  With  Jesus  the  min- 
istry of  reconcihation  was  not  spasmodic,  as 
though  there  could  be  self-denial  weeks  dropped 
occasionally  into  self-indulgent  months  and 
years.  A  simple,  strong,  unlettered  fisherman 
once  lost  his  life  saving  some  people  caught 
out  in  a  storm.  In  language  of  epic  dignity 
his  wife  described  her  husband  as  he  lay  dead 
before  her,  not  knowing  that  she  was  saying 
anything  immortal:  "All  his  life  when  he  had 
anything  that  other  people  needed  he  gave  it 
to  them.  At  last  they  needed  his  life  and  he 
just  gave  them  that."  And  nothing  better  has 
ever  been  discovered  to  do  with  a  life  than  to 
do  that  with  it,  not  once,  in  a  final  throw,  but 
all  the  time,  as  the  manner  of  Jesus  was.  The 
proof-texts  do  not  give  meaning  to  his  life,  the 
life  gives  meaning  to  the  texts.  When  they  are 
read  in  the  fight  of  his  whole  ministry  they 
fairly  blaze  with  light.  One  hesitates  to  read 
them  because  they  throw  our  ministry  into  the 
shadow  in  such  a  painful  degree.  We  call  them 
classic  passages  and  treat  them  as  though  they 
were  exhausted  in  their  original  use.  And  we 
allow  them  to  become  commonplace,  even  to 
become  dead  letters  by  this  limitation  of  their 
application.  They  never  would  be  common- 
place, their  meaning  never  would  be  obscure,  if 

135 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

these  noble  old  words,  perfectly  true  of  Jesus, 
were  now  walking  around  from  ten  thousand 
parsonages  and  rectories  into  the  streets  on 
which  people  live  and  die.  Why  do  I  hesitate 
to  quote  such  words  as  these,  "The  Son  of  man 
came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minis- 
ter, and  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many"? 
Is  it  not  because  we  have  so  largely  emptied 
this  and  kindred  passages  of  their  deepest  con- 
tents by  our  failure  to  make  personal  their  full 
significance?  We  have  made  this  the  motto  of 
benevolent  and  self-complacent  unselfishness 
without  any  reference  whatever  to  its  atoning 
depths.  We  are  not  selfish,  we  are  politely  and 
amiably  unselfish.  We  freely  bestow  cups  of 
cold  water  in  the  ratio  of  one  cup  given  to  nine 
cups  retained.  We  actually  seem  to  think  that 
tithing  on  a  ten  per  cent  basis  puts  us  into  his 
class.  The  ministry  is  not  selfish  according  to 
our  best  standards.  It  means  to  be  genuinely 
unselfish.  "Altruism"  is  a  word  often  used  by 
us,  used  with  warmth  and  approval.  We  urge 
and  practice  altruism.  We  glorify  service  up  to 
the  point  of  making  a  cult  of  it,  but  stop  short 
of  the  atoning  life,  the  life  given  as  a  ransom. 
We  talk  freely  of  crossbearing,  we  sing  lustily 
of  it,  but  we  identify  it  with  enduring  an  in- 
convenience, putting  up  with  an  annoyance,  or 
suffering  a  deprivation.    It  bears  directly  upon 

136 


THE   MINISTRY  OF  RECONCILIATION 

comfort,  but  not  very  clearly  upon  evil.  We 
read  these  words  from  Ian  Maclaren  with  a 
guilty  feeling,  as  though  he  had  torn  the  mask 
from  our  faces,  or  the  covering  from  our  inmost 
thoughts:  "Perhaps  the  simplicity  of  the  symbol 
has  ....  blinded  us  to  its  strenuous  meaning. 
Art  ....  with  the  instinct  for  moral  beauty 
has  seized  the  cross  and  idealized  it.  It  is 
wrought  in  gold  and  hung  on  the  neck  of  light- 
hearted  beauty;  it  is  stamped  on  the  costly 
binding  of  Bibles  that  go  to  church  in  car- 
riages; it  stands  out  in  bold  relief  on  churches 
that  are  filled  with  easy-going  people.  ...  It 
has  been  taken  out  of  Jesus 's  hands  and  smoth- 
ered in  flowers;  it  has  become  what  he  would 
have  hated — a  source  of  graceful  ideas  and 
agreeable  emotions.  In  theology  it  has  been 
planted  in  an  environment  of  doctrine.  It  has 
been  made  into  a  doctrine;  it  was  prepared  by 
Jesus  as  a  discipline." 

All  this  is  very  far  from  a  perfect  identifica- 
tion with  the  spirit  and  experiences  of  that  other 
Minister.  It  does  not  get  with  passion  into  the 
passion  of  his  life;  it  only  approves,  admires, 
and  mildly  shares  the  devotion  that  was  costing 
him  his  life  all  the  time.  The  atonement  has 
thus  become  a  doctrine  which  few  understand. 
For  we  never  understand  the  cross  until  we 
endure  it  or  the  atonement  until  we  practice  it. 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

Being  crucified  with  Christ  is  not  a  practice 
with  which  the  church  is  too  well  acquainted. 
The  cross  is  important  in  theology.  The  asser- 
tion of  its  place  and  importance  amounts  almost 
to  a  final  test  of  one's  orthodoxy.  But  the  cross 
in  experience,  in  life  and  practice,  is  immeas- 
urably more  important  and  more  easily  under- 
stood. 

Shallow  criticism  would  naturally  wonder  if  I 
am  suggesting  that  modern  ministers  should 
rush  around  feverishly  seeking  crosses  and  in- 
viting crucifixions.  This,  of  course,  is  far  from 
my  thought.  No  one  cares  for  the  men  who  go 
about  hunting  martyrdom,  especially  well  ad- 
vertised, self-conscious,  obvious,  posing  mar- 
tyrdom, a  thing  wholly  unlike  the  soberness  and 
dignity  of  Jesus's  life.  I  am  only  trying  to  bring 
him  and  his  ministers  into  union  in  the  essence 
of  his  spirit  and  experiences.  In  our  deepest 
moments  we  all  feel  the  chasm  between  him  and 
ourselves.  We  feel  the  loss  due  to  this  differ- 
ence. We  are  not  enough  like  him.  We  are  not 
thinking  of  any  fanatical  or  impossible  resem- 
blances or  relations.  We  are  nowhere  near 
excess  in  this  respect.  Artificial  or  unreasonable 
experiences  are  farthest  from  my  thoughts,  but 
I  cannot  but  believe  that  a  vastly  closer  identi- 
fication with  Jesus  is  both  possible  and  necessary 
to  our  most  perfect  ministry;  that  in  the  crush- 

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THE   MINISTRY   OF  RECONCILIATION 

ing  ministry  of  reconciliation  and  atonement 
which  was  perfect  in  him  we  need  to  share  much 
more  completely  than  we  do.  And  in  our  long 
history  those  ministers  who  have  shared  this 
spirit  with  Jesus  most  perfectly  have  most 
nobly  glorified  their  ministry  and  his.  They  are 
not  few,  but  they  are  all  too  few.  Our  levels 
are  neither  deep  enough  nor  high  enough.  It  is 
not  good  that  a  certain  type  of  character  and 
devotion  should  be  characterized  as  singular  and 
unusual.  We  save  devotion  from  fanaticism  by 
conforming  it  to  the  devotion  of  Jesus.  We  save 
our  lives  from  shallowness  by  having  Christ 
formed  in  us.  We  save  them  from  the  look  of 
worldliness  by  really  putting  on  Christ  as  a 
garment. 

With  all  proper  allowance  again  for  his  unique 
work  and  place,  for  the  extraordinary  character 
of  his  ministry,  I  must  still  believe  that  we 
ought  to  get  into  the  glory  of  that  ministry 
more  perfectly  than  we  ever  have.  With  this 
view  there  are  certain  words  about  him  which 
you  cannot  read  with  composure  or  spiritual 
complacency.  Take  that  sentence  already  in 
our  minds:  "The  Son  of  man  came  not  to  be 
served  but  to  serve,  and  to  give  his  life."  There 
is  something  vastly  more  than  simple  unselfish- 
ness in  that.  This  is  the  description  of  one 
Minister's  life.     Those  who  know  him  adore 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

him  and  understand  him,  especially  if  they 
share  this  spirit.  What  if  this  were  the  de- 
scription of  many  ministers'  lives?  Or  take 
those  other  words  spoken  to  him  and  spoken  of 
him:  "Thou  art  my  beloved  Son;  in  thee  I  am 
well  pleased."  "This  is  my  Son,  in  him  I  am 
well  pleased."  More  than  once  these  words 
were  repeated.  At  the  baptism,  as  he  was 
entering  upon  his  holy  calling  in  entire  con- 
secration, and  at  the  transfiguration,  when 
Moses  and  Elias  spoke  of  his  death,  these 
sentences  came  out  of  the  sky.  Gethsemane 
and  Calvary  were  a  long  way  ahead,  but  the 
spirit  of  both  reached  back  to  these  significant 
events.  Baptism  is  much  more  than  a  ritual, 
an  ecclesiastical  ceremony.  It  was  much  more 
to  him.  It  is,  in  its  nature,  not  ceremonial  at 
all,  but  sacramental.  The  form  of  it  does  not 
seem  to  me  essential;  the  thing  itself  seems  full 
of  meaning,  as  the  entrance  upon  a  sacrificial 
life  or  ministry  or  both.  The  crucifixion  was  not 
a  formal  ceremony  of  sacrifice.  Nothing  was 
formal  in  that  other  Minister's  life.  Every- 
thing stood  related  to  his  redemptive  purpose, 
everything  was  part  of  the  eternal,  divine  war 
against  sin.  He  was  fighting  our  fight  against 
sin  all  the  time.  His  whole  career  was  vicarious, 
both  in  its  deep  principle  and  its  particular 
events.    This  divine  recognition  of  this  divine 

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THE   MINISTRY  OF  RECONCILIATION 

Son  at  the  baptism  was  something  more  than  an 
assertion  of  his  divinity  which  would  be  useful 
for  doctrinal  purposes.  The  argument  for  his 
divinity  is  not  in  these  words,  but  in  the  life 
that  justified  and  compelled  them.  "He  stead- 
fastly set  his  face  to  go  to  Jerusalem."  He 
perfectly  knew  "the  long  self-sacrifice  of  life." 

Remember  now  that  we  are  not  trying  to 
frame  a  doctrine,  but  to  find  a  personal  basis 
for  our  ministry.  We  are  not  discussing  the 
atonement  as  a  doctrine,  but  trying  to  see 
clearly  the  features  and  to  get  the  spirit  of  that 
life  which  was  an  atoning  life  in  its  deepest 
roots  long  before  it  reached  the  final  experience 
on  Calvary.  In  a  way  that  is  what  makes  it  so 
remarkable,  so  thoroughly  divine,  so  overwhelm- 
ing. If  atonement  and  reconciliation  had  all 
been  crowded  into  one  final,  supreme  hour,  we 
could  have  more  easily  understood  it  from  our 
own  experiences.  We  know  how  to  say,  "Let 
us  have  it  over  with  once  for  all,"  and  how  to 
go  bravely  into  it  once  for  all.  But  it  never  was 
over  with  in  the  life  of  that  other  One.  It  is 
not  over  with  him  now.  He  did  not  come  from 
a  life  of  complacency.  He  did  not  come  into  a 
life  of  complacency,  nor  comfort,  nor  ease.  He 
did  not  go  away  to  a  life  of  complacency  nor 
indifference.  Intercession  like  his  is  never  com- 
placent in  any  world.    The  ministry  of  interces- 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

sion  always  climaxes  in  that  figure  standing  at 
God's  right  hand  interceding  for  us,  with  yearn- 
ings that  can  find  no  words.  You  may  criticize 
the  commercial  theory  or  the  governmental 
theory  or  any  other  theory  of  the  atonement  if 
you  wish,  but  there  is  no  criticism  of  that  per- 
fect ministry  of  reconciliation  or  of  any  other 
like  it.  You  must  not  by  any  process  weaken 
or  cloud  the  spirit  and  character  of  what  Jesus 
did  or  take  the  atoning,  reconciling  feature  out 
of  your  ministry.  You  can  go  into  it  with  him, 
or  without  him,  or  you  may  go  in  partly  with 
him.  You  may  enthrone  the  half  gods  in  your 
ministry  if  you  choose,  but  you  cannot  have  a 
ministry  like  his  unless  it  is  like  his  clear 
through.  One  supreme,  fairly  solitary  act  of 
self-denial  or  self-sacrifice  will  not  constitute  a 
vital  likeness  to  his.  And,  as  Edward  Judson 
so  finely  said,  "If  any  one  of  you  succeeds  with- 
out this  spirit,  it  will  be  because  some  one  else 
has  had  the  spirit  without  the  success."  In 
the  long  run  the  books  of  God  balance. 

Now,  it  is  almost  an  impertinence  to  pick  out 
incidents  as  though  they  were  isolated  and 
special.  No  event  in  his  life  was  bare  and  soli- 
tary, apart  and  unrelated.  It  is  the  whole 
both  in  the  New  Testament  and  in  the  life  of 
Jesus  that  makes  them  perennial,  and  con- 
stitutes them  the  current  word  as  well  as  an 

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THE   MINISTRY  OF  RECONCILIATION 

ancient  word.  He  was  the  Redeemer  all  the 
time,  full  of  grace  and  truth.  Break  into  his 
life  anywhere  and  you  will  feel  that.  "An  old 
legend  describes  him  as  working  out  his  own 
cross  in  the  carpenter's  shop  at  Nazareth." 
Under  the  legend  is  the  profound  truth  that  the 
cross  was  never  absent  from  his  life,  the  cross 
not  as  an  inconvenience  or  a  final  martyrdom, 
but  the  cross  as  meaning  that  actual  ministry  of 
reconciliation  and  atonement  that  marked  his 
life  as  a  whole.  He  refused  to  make  bread  for 
himself  when  he  was  hungry;  he  made  bread  in 
quantities  for  others  when  they  were  hungry, 
not  that  he  might  feed  them,  but  that  he  might 
save  them.  He  refused  to  come  down  from  the 
cross  at  the  last  as  he  did  all  the  way  along, 
because  he  was  not  concerned  to  save  himself, 
but  to  save  others.  To  have  refused  the  cross 
at  last,  after  having  carried  it  all  the  rest  of  the 
way,  would  have  broken  the  unity  of  his  whole 
life.  To  have  told  a  lie  any  day  would  have 
broken  the  unity  of  his  life  of  truth.  When  he 
said  to  Pilate:  "To  this  end  was  I  born,  for  this 
cause  came  I  into  the  world,  that  I  should  bear 
witness  unto  the  truth,"  he  was  not  saying 
something  new,  saying  it  then  for  the  first  time. 
All  his  life  was  like  that  glorious  utterance. 
When  he  came  to  the  cross  he  was  not  coming 
to  a  surprise,  to  something  new  and  strange  in 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

his  experience.  He  did  not  change  the  direction, 
the  tone,  or  the  spirit  of  his  life  when  he  started 
up  the  low  hill  outside  the  gate.  This  was  the 
thrilling  fulfillment  of  an  experience  he  well 
knew  and  a  way  he  had  traveled  until  his  feet 
were  so  used  to  it  that  they  could  have  found 
the  way  in  the  dark.  This  gave  focus  to  his 
work  and  to  his  speech.  It  always  does  when  it 
gets  control  in  a  life.  It  sloughs  off  a  lot  of 
things,  like  selfishness,  vagueness,  lack  of  aim, 
and  the  like.  It  transforms  a  man's  very  lan- 
guage and  clarifies  it.  Many  a  man's  speech  is 
like  the  sword  that  had  so  many  jewels  its 
owner  could  not  swing  it  in  his  fight  against  the 
dragon.  Many  a  man  is  held  back  by  his  coats. 
The  atoning  ministry  will  drop  the  speech  and 
the  stuff  that  hinders  its  sure,  swift  progress  to 
its  goal. 

And  with  this  life  of  his  we  are  to  have  fel- 
lowship. One  day,  you  remember,  two  of  the 
brethren,  with  apparent,  worldly  wisdom,  with 
real  desire  for  recognition  expressed  in  terms  of 
a  desire  to  be  near  the  Master,  made  a  special 
request  of  him.  It  sounded  as  if  they  did  not 
want  to  be  separated  from  him,  as  if  they  loved 
him  so  much  that  they  always  wanted  to  be  at 
his  side,  one  on  one  side,  one  on  the  other,  in 
his  glory.  Of  course  the  other  ten  did  not  like  it 
that  these  two  had  asked  for  the  choice  places. 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  RECONCILIATION 

They  had  as  much  right  to  them  as  had  James 
and  John.  Certainly  they  had,  and  certainly 
they  have.  And  that  spirit  is  not  dead,  though 
Jesus  did  his  best  to  set  it  straight.  For  the 
business  of  where  one  shall  be  seated  is  not  the 
supreme  thing  in  our  lives,  nor  is  it  for  us  to 
choose.  That  is  not  for  us  to  determine,  nor 
for  us  to  be  anxious  about,  especially  not  for  us 
to  be  greedy  and  selfish  about.  We  do  not  need 
to  foster  in  ourselves  that  kind  of  ambition,  or 
pride  of  place,  even  place  beside  him  in  his 
glory.  There  will  be  enough  of  this  without 
any  effort  from  us.  Here  are  the  far  deeper 
questions:  Shall  we  drink  with  him,  out  of  his 
cup?  These  are  the  days  of  the  campaign  and 
the  canteen.  Can  we  share  his  baptism  of 
blood  and  fire,  and  share  his  canteen  in  the 
long  march,  in  the  trench,  or  the  bitter  fight .^ 
This  is  greatness  for  him,  for  those  other  men, 
the  whole  dozen  of  them,  for  us,  that  for  re- 
demption's sake  we  walk  his  way  of  service  and 
ministry,  without  thought  of  authority,  reward, 
rank,  or  greatness.  Where  we  shall  sit  is  unim- 
portant, what  we  shall  be  and  do  is  important 
to  him  and  to  the  world.  Can  we  share  his  cup 
and  his  baptism  .^^  Brothers,  in  the  language  of 
the  ritual,  let  us  draw  near  with  faith  and  take 
this  holy  sacrament  to  our  comfort  and  strength. 
For  there  is  no  comfort  or  strength  in  any  other 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

way  than  his.    If  it  be  a  weary  way  to  God,  it  is 
an  infinitely  wearier  way  to  any  half -gods. 

Why  does  the  transfiguration  seem  so  far  from 
the  crucifixion,  as  though  those  two  mountains 
had  no  relation  to  each  other?  Why  should  we 
be  so  slow  to  see  the  bearing  of  a  rapture,  an 
exaltation  in  our  religious  experience?  I  asked 
a  thoughtful  Christian  what  he  thought  about 
when  the  transfiguration  came  to  his  mind. 
He  answered:  "The  glory  of  it,  the  glistening 
garments,  the  shining  faces,  the  visitors,  and 
the  voice  from  heaven."  That  would  be  the 
usual  response.  But  in  that  high  place  and 
high  hour  those  present  talked  of  the  coming 
death  of  that  Minister  with  the  glistening  gar- 
ments and  the  divine  approval.  Calvary  cast 
its  shadow  across  that  radiant  scene.  The  aton- 
ing, sacrificial  ministry  was  not  out  of  mind  at 
all,  even  when  it  seemed  far  away.  When  they 
came  down  it  was  to  meet  the  boy  possessed  of 
the  demons  which  the  disciples  had  been  unable 
to  cast  out.  And  immediately  the  discussion 
of  demoniacal  possession  gets  going.  And  this 
in  a  world  where  demons  abound,  demons  that 
can  only  be  cast  out  by  the  right  kind  of  a  min- 
istry! Our  poor,  human  ministry  that  day  was 
helpless.  It  could  not  cast  the  demons  out. 
And  our  ministry  got  blistered  because  it  could 
not.    It  deserved  it.    It  deserves  it  yet,  when  it 

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THE   MINISTRY  OF  RECONCILIATION 

only  stands  round,  rubbing  its  hands  and  keep- 
ing the  discussion  going  while  boys  are  ruined 
by  demons.  He  did  the  thing  needing  to  be 
done.  Demons  cannot  stand  his  kind  of  au- 
thority. I  wonder  if  again  that  voice  came  out 
of  the  skies:  "Thou  art  my  Son." 

One  other  word  remains.  He  spoke  it  him- 
self. "If  any  man  would  follow  me,  let  him 
deny  himself,  take  up  his  cross  day  by  day  and 
so  follow  me.  For  whosoever  desires  to  save  his 
life  shall  lose  it."  I  think  this  is  perfectly  fair. 
We  forced  the  cross  upon  him.  We  compelled 
the  atoning  feature  to  come  into  his  life.  We 
ought  to  identify  ourselves  with  him  clear 
through.  We  ought  to  share  the  cross  we 
planted  in  his  life.  We  get  the  benefits  of  this 
life.  We  ought  to  share  it.  He  identified  him- 
self with  people  gone  wrong.  He  took  their 
case  upon  himself.  The  old  discussion  as  to 
whether  Jesus  would  have  come  if  man  had  not 
sinned  seems  perfectly  idle  and  academic.  He 
did  come  because  we  men  had  gone  wrong,  and 
we  maltreated  him  in  a  hundred  ways,  and 
finally  killed  him.  We  are  dealing  with  the 
world  as  it  is.  What  kind  of  incarnation  would 
have  taken  place  in  a  world  without  sin  is 
interesting  but  speculative.  "God  has  other 
words  for  other  worlds.  But  for  this  world 
the  Word  of  God  is  Christ."     What  name  he 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

would  have  borne  if  he  had  come  into  such  a 
world  we  cannot  even  guess.  It  would  not 
have  been  Jesus.  The  reason  for  that  name 
would  not  have  existed.  He  did  come  into  a 
world  gone  wrong.  He  does  bear  the  name 
which  is  tragic  in  the  very  meaning  of  it.  The 
ministry  of  Jesus  was  a  ministry  of  reconcilia- 
tion because  no  other  would  do  in  this  world. 
Keep  away  from  the  idle  discussions  that  befog 
men  and  take  the  edge  off  the  preaching  value 
and  the  personal  meaning  of  that  ministry.  We 
understand  it  and  we  easily  make  it  plain  when 
in  its  spirit  we  repeat  it  and  practice  it.  The 
cross  is  no  great  mystery  to  men  who  really 
take  it  up  and  carry  it  around  daily.  Jesus's 
life  is  absolutely  luminous  to  the  man  who 
shares  it  in  its  full  spirit.  But  even  the  teach- 
ings, the  wonderful  words  of  Jesus,  become  con- 
fused and  impossible  to  the  man  who  is  not 
sharing  his  life  in  its  deepest  meaning.  He  loses 
the  sense  of  values  and  of  emphasis.  Jesus  him- 
self is  a  mystery  to  the  man  who  is  not  going 
his  way.  It  is  not  for  us  to  vapor  away,  to 
reduce,  to  dilute  the  meaning  of  his  own  words; 
not  for  us  to  pick  out  the  things  we  like  and 
leave  the  rest;  not  for  us  to  detach  ourselves 
and  our  ministry  from  him  and  his  ministry  in 
spirit  and  practice.  He  could  not  go  half  way 
and  then  stop.    He  could  not  go  up  to  the  vision 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  RECONCILIATION 

of  a  cross  and  then  back  out  without  going  the 
whole  length.  Evidently,  he  did  not  think  we 
could.  Clearly,  he  did  not  think  disciples  could 
do  what  was  impossible  to  their  Master.  Why 
should  they  expect  to,  or  desire  to?  He  has 
his  hold  upon  the  world,  not  alone  by  the  beauty 
of  the  words  he  spoke,  but  by  the  spirit  of  his 
life.  And  the  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ  in  every 
age,  in  every  land,  have  strong  or  weak  hold 
upon  the  age  and  the  land  in  proportion  as 
their  ministries  and  lives  are  like  or  unlike  his. 
A  Christlike  ministry  is  to  be  more  than  ad- 
mired, it  is  to  be  repeated  and  shared.  We  can 
keep  a  ministry  like  his  only  by  vitalizing  it  in 
ourselves. 

Maybe  you  think  there  is  no  acute  or  uni- 
versal need  of  a  ministry  of  reconciliation 
to-day.  Maybe  you  think  the  perfection  of 
his  ministry  covers  the  whole  case.  It  is  so 
easy  to  take  the  life  out  of  a  truth  by  a  false 
treatment  of  it.  But  if,  now,  you  want  to  see 
the  place  of  a  ministry  of  reconciliation  to-day, 
as  you  must,  ask  two  questions:  Is  modern 
mankind  reconciled  to  God,  in  harmony  with 
him  in  his  plans,  spirit,  character,  and  purposes, 
in  love  with  him  in  his  nature  and  will,  or  is  it 
not?  Is  modern  mankind  in  harmony  and  unity 
with  itself,  race  with  race,  class  with  class,  man 
with  man?    If  the  business  of  reconciliation  is 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

not  serious,  if  the  need  of  it  is  not  genuine,  if 
the  case  is  conventional,  a  paper  case  or  a  mock 
trial,  then,  of  course,  a  conventional,  verbal, 
instructive,  comfortable  ministry  will  answer. 
But  if  your  ministry  is  to  be  like  your  Master's, 
it  must  stand  in  your  convictions  as  his  did,  as 
a  real  necessity,  commanding  and  universal.  A 
cross  like  his  cannot  be  carried  by  him  or  anyone 
else  unless  the  need  for  it  is  imperative. 

How,  then,  stands  the  relation  between  man, 
the  man  of  New  England,  the  man  of  the  West, 
the  man  of  Europe  or  Asia,  and  the  God  of 
Jesus  Christ?  How  do  you  think  God  thinks 
and  feels  about  this  man,  wherever  he  is?  Do 
you  think  God  is  pleased  or  satisfied  with  the 
man's  attitude  to  him  on  the  whole?  How  do 
you  think  this  man,  this  vast,  countless  man, 
of  all  classes  and  conditions,  thinks  and  feels 
about  God?  How  do  conditions  to-day  com- 
pare with  conditions  as  they  were  in  the  days  of 
Jesus's  ministry?  How  did  all  this  look  to  him? 
How  does  it  look  to  him?  And  these  questions 
take  us  straight  into  the  heart  of  his  ministry 
and  every  true  ministry  based  upon  his.  With 
a  kind  of  shout  Paul's  words  leap  out  of  the 
second  Corinthian  letter:  "And  all  this  is  from 
God  who  has  reconciled  us  to  himself  through 
Christ  and  has  appointed  us  to  serve  in  the 
ministry  of  reconciliation.    We  are  to  tell  how 

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THE   MINISTRY  OF  RECONCILIATION 

God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  to 
himself,  .  .  .  and  that  he  has  intrusted  to  us 
the  message  of  this  reconciliation.  On  Christ's 
behalf,  therefore,  we  come  as  ambassadors,  God, 
as  it  were,  making  entreaty  through  our  lips: 
we,  on  Christ's  behalf,  beseech  men  to  be  recon- 
ciled to  God"  (2  Cor.  5.  18-20).  Why  should 
anyone  take  on  himself  the  difficult  office  of  an 
ambassador  .f^  I  wonder  that  any  ambassador  in 
Europe  in  the  last  three  years  has  escaped 
nervous  prostration.  Why  should  anyone  un- 
dertake the  task  of  bringing  about  a  reconcilia- 
tion.'* There  is  nothing  much  more  discouraging 
in  this  world.  Yet  Jesus,  that  other  Minister, 
undertook  it.  He  entered  into  the  broken, 
estranged,  hostile  relation  between  men  and 
God  and  became  a  minister  of  reconciliation. 
Men  then,  as  men  now,  were  alienated  from  God, 
estranged  from  him,  enemies  to  him  because  they 
had  wronged  him.  They  loved  pleasure  instead 
of  loving  God.  The  men  of  his  time  did  not 
care  for  God  any  more  than  do  the  men  of 
ours.  The  ox  and  the  ass  knew  owner  and  crib 
just  as  men  know  on  which  side  their  bread  is 
buttered,  but  the  people  were  vastly  indifferent 
to  God.  Such  words  as  "rebel,"  "prodigal," 
"alien,"  "enemy,"  and  the  like  describe  actual 
conditions.  This  is  not  a  problem  in  theology. 
This  is  purely  personal,  the  question  of  personal 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

relations,  severed  relations,  wrong  relations  with 
all  they  involve.  Now,  let  any  man  undertake 
the  task  of  mediation  and  reconciliation  and  he 
will  find  out  that  it  is  no  easy  task.  Peace- 
makers have  their  own  trials.  Let  any  man 
who  has  tried  to  bring  together  two  persons 
who  have  become  estranged  to  the  point  of 
bitterness  say  what  it  means.  A  revealing 
ministry,  that  teaches  truth  and  duty,  reveals 
God  and  grace,  awakens  admiration.  A  serving 
ministry,  that  gets  into  human  life  with  help 
and  unselfishness  such  as  Jesus  showed,  calls 
for  praise.  But  a  reconciling  ministry,  that  puts 
itself  into  the  crush  of  restoring  broken  relations, 
that  makes  offers  of  pardon,  and  tries  to  per- 
suade prodigals  to  go  home,  is  enough  to  set 
angels  and  sinners  to  shouting,  but  it  usually 
lands  its  minister  on  a  cross.  Ministries  have 
been  didactic,  ritualistic,  hortatory,  evangelistic, 
practical,  and  much  besides,  but  in  the  depths  of 
it  the  ministry  must  be  a  ministry  of  reconcilia- 
tion. It  must  ever  say  of  itself,  "I  am  crucified 
with  Christ."  This  brings  us  into  sympathy 
with  God's  mind  toward  sin,  not  as  a  sentiment, 
but  as  an  experience. 

For  men  are  estranged  from  God.  They  do 
not  care  for  him.  He  is  not  in  all  their  thoughts. 
He  is  a  part  of  their  creed,  a  vague  refuge  in 
trouble,  a  sort  of  general  dependence  for  safety, 

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THE   MINISTRY  OF  RECONCILIATION 

but  not  an  object  of  much  personal  affection. 
Love  for  him  is  rather  theological  and  religious 
than  anything  else.  One  of  Matthew  Arnold's 
friends,  you  remember,  expressed  pity  for  Ar- 
nold after  his  death,  saying,  "He  will  not  like 
God."  The  flippancy  was  half  serious.  Many 
men  do  not  like  God.  They  are  not  in  any  rap- 
turous harmony  with  him  or  his  plans.  Those 
saints  to  whom  you  will  be  ministers  will  even 
talk  of  the  Lord's  will  as  though  it  were  both 
intolerable  and  inscrutable,  and  they  will  think 
they  reach  the  highwater  mark  of  personal 
piety  in  submission  to  the  will  of  the  Lord. 
They  will  even  exhibit  their  submission  as  proof 
of  their  high  state  of  grace.  The  will  of  the 
Lord  is  a  thing  to  be  submitted  to  or  done  after 
an  extra  effort,  even  with  many  people  who 
think  themselves  his  loving,  loyal  children. 
**The  decrees  of  God  are  hard."  Men  do  not 
love  him  with  their  minds  or  with  their  might. 
They  do  not  like  him.  Except  the  few,  choice 
special  ones,  they  do  not  like  to  be  with  him. 
His  purposes  for  men  and  for  the  world  are  not 
fairly,  and  not  at  all  gladly,  accepted.  Compare 
Jesus's  constant  sense  of  harmony  with  God, 
with  that  of  any  man  you  know  and  you  see  the 
difference  at  once.  Listen  to  Jesus:  "I  and  my 
Father  are  one."  Hear  him  again,  not  with 
a  whine,  not  in  pious  resignation,  but  with  a 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

shout,  this  best  of  men,  with  the  best  will  we 
ever  saw,  ring  out:  "Not  my  will,  but  thine,  be 
done."  Reckon  that  against  any  of  the  obedi- 
ences with  which  you  are  familiar;  reckon  it 
especially  against  the  attitude  of  the  world  as 
a  whole,  and  you  see  what  we  have  to  do,  stand- 
ing in  Christ's  stead  in  the  business  of  pleading 
with  men  to  be  reconciled  to  God.  The  song 
says  it  truly,  whatever  you  may  think  of  the 
hymn  as  a  poem; 

"This  is  the  message  that  I  bring, 
A  message  angels  fair  would  sing. 
Oh,  be  ye  reconciled,  thus  saith  our  Lord  and  King, 
Oh,  be  ye  reconciled  to  God." 

Do  not  misunderstand,  especially  do  not  despise 
the  business  of  being  an  ambassador.  He  pre- 
vents war,  he  makes  peace,  he  heals  quarrels,  he 
straightens  out  alienations,  he  reconciles  men 
and  nations.  Do  not  be  dazzled  by  military 
figures  as  applied  to  the  ministry.  They  have 
their  place,  because  life  is  so  complex.  But  as 
between  God  and  men,  and  mostly  between 
men  and  men,  one  good  reconciler  is  worth  a 
thousand  fighters.  Blessed  are  the  peace- 
makers; they  shall  be  called  the  children  of 
God.  The  cross  is  not  a  fighting  symbol  so 
much  as  an  atoning  and  reconciling  symbol. 
By  it  and  on  it  was  won  the  battle  against  those 
forces  that  would  have  separated  God  and  man 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  RECONCILIATION 

forever.  And  the  cross  throws  itself  forward 
into  our  ministry  all  the  time.  Whenever  we 
weaken,  or  flinch,  or  grow  selfish,  and  shrink 
from  our  ministry  of  reconciliation,  "there,"  as 
George  Tyrrell  said,  "is  that  strange  Man  on  the 
cross  that  drives  us  back  again  and  again."  I 
have  good  hope  of  the  ministry  that  belongs  to 
this  fellowship,  that  interprets  its  spirit  and 
experience  in  the  terms  of  this  unbroken  atti- 
tude of  Jesus,  that  is  crucified  with  him  day  by 
day,  that  shares  the  fellowship  of  his  sufferings. 
Some  one  has  said  that  mankind  is  made  up  of 
two  classes — these  and  the  rest.  And  this  is  the 
line  that  cleaves  the  ministry. 

Still,  I  must  not  get  away  from  the  purpose 
of  it,  which  is  that  men  shall  be  reconciled  to 
God.  Our  interest  is  the  minister's  interest. 
And  the  minister  thinks  of  his  theology  as  a 
means  to  an  end,  the  end  of  his  ministry.  He  is 
pretty  far  gone  in  foolishness  when  he  is  con- 
tent simply  to  exhibit  or  present  a  doctrine, 
even  a  sound  one,  or  a  truth,  even  an  important 
one.  The  subjects  of  his  sermons  are  not  half  so 
vital  as  the  objects  of  them.  He  can  talk  about 
the  atonement,  about  the  work  of  Jesus  Christ, 
with  perfect  logic  and  highest  eloquence,  but  his 
heart  aches,  or  ought  to  ache,  unless  men  are 
persuaded  and  reconciled  to  God.  There  ever  is 
that  strange  Man,  leading  that  strange  life,  full 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

of  sacrifice,  full  of  unselfish  devotion  to  men, 
crowded  with  kindly  ministries  to  the  poor  and 
the  suffering,  ever  liable  to  misinterpretation,  as 
though  his  ministry  were  just  a  ministry  of  help- 
ful service,  personal  and  social,  a  ministry  of 
good  will,  kindness  and  unselfishness.  It  is  so 
easy  to  get  that  far  with  his  or  our  own  min- 
istry, and  so  easy  to  stop  there,  in  that  desert 
of  soft  good  will.  The  ministry  of  Jesus  was  not 
fundamentally  a  ministry  against  discomfort  and 
misfortune,  but  against  disobedience  and  evil, 
against  spiritual  wickedness,  against  alienation 
from  God.  The  Son  of  man  did  not  come  simply 
to  bring  comfort  or  to  show  amiability.  He 
came  to  recall  men  to  obedience,  holiness,  and 
fellowship,  and  to  persuade  them  to  be  recon- 
ciled to  God.  God  did  not  need  to  be  changed. 
He  only  needed  to  be  revealed.  Men  needed  to 
be  changed  in  their  spirits,  in  their  lives,  to  be 
persuaded  and  reconciled  to  the  God  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Why  are  we  so  satisfied  when  we  have 
simply  presented  a  truth?  Why  are  we  so  com- 
placent when  we  have  only  made  an  argument? 
Why  are  we  so  at  peace  with  ourselves  over  the 
exposition  of  a  scripture  or  the  expounding  of  a 
doctrine?  Is  it  not  largely  because  we  have  lost 
sight  of  the  personal  end  of  our  ministry?  How 
keen  is  the  consciousness  that  we  are  ambassa- 
dors, that  we  stand  in  Christ's  stead  to  plead 

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THE   MINISTRY  OF  RECONCILIATION 

with  men,  to  beg  men  to  be  reconciled  to  God? 
What  will  it  matter  if  they  are  not  reconciled? 
Will  not  both  God  and  men  get  along  pretty 
well  anyhow?  What  is  the  use  of  all  this 
urgency?  Anyhow,  what  is  the  use  of  it,  ex- 
cept by  the  Salvation  Army,  the  rescue  mission 
people,  the  noisy  evangelists,  and  possibly  mis- 
sionaries in  foreign  fields?  It  is  their  stock  in 
trade,  it  fits  the  people  with  whom  they  work. 
And  just  as  far  as  this  sentiment  and  condition 
obtain,  just  so  far  is  the  ministry  remote  from 
Nazareth  and  Calvary  and  that  other  Minister 
there  on  the  horizon,  for  the  tragedy  of  Chris- 
tendom is  not  that  the  bum  alone  is  alienated 
from  God,  but  that  the  college  man  also  and 
the  college  woman,  the  decent  man  and  decent 
woman  of  decent  homes  are  in  such  intolerable 
numbers  living  their  lives  apart  from  God  and 
all  his  interests,  and  it  does  not  seem  to  be  a  very 
serious  matter  to  them  or  the  men  who  stand  in 
Christ's  stead  as  ministers  of  reconciliation.  We 
are  dead  in  earnest  about  the  war,  about  the 
saloon,  about  a  thousand  things,  and  utterly 
placid  about  this.  I  knew  a  man  who  spent  the 
strength  of  his  life  trying  to  effect  a  logical  recon- 
ciliation between  two  of  God's  attributes,  while 
all  around  him  were  thousands  of  God's  children, 
not  caring  for  God  or  for  one  another  at  all, 
living  away  from  him  in  disobedience,  indiffer- 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

ence,  and  hate.  I  have  heard,  God  forgive  me, 
I  have  preached  all  too  many  sermons  full  of 
passion  for  truth  as  it  appeared  to  me,  full  of 
concern  for  the  faith,  but  wholly  without  any 
visible  passion  or  concern  for  men  and  women 
and  their  reconciliation  to  the  God  of  Jesus 
Christ  or  to  one  another.  I  think  we  have  ten 
times  as  good  a  theology  as  our  forefathers  had, 
ten  times  as  good  an  understanding  of  Jesus  and 
his  teaching,  ten  times  as  good  a  theory  of  social 
service  and  human  welfare,  but  nothing  like  their 
ardor  to  bring  men  to  God,  to  bring  men  and 
God  together,  to  restore  lost  men  to  God,  that 
made  some  of  our  forefathers  imperial  in  their 
ministry.  It  is  easy  to  sneer  at  their  theological 
imperfections  and  incompetence,  but  more  to  our 
credit  to  put  the  zeal  of  their  lives  into  our 
larger  and  better  views.  We  have  vastly  more 
and  vastly  better  fuel  than  they  had,  but  our 
fire  is  all  too  safely  shut  up  in  our  bones  without 
any  danger  to  the  bones. 

In  one  of  the  war  stories  a  lad,  going  to  the 
front,  said  in  his  young,  eager  way:  "I  take  it 
like  this,  life's  a  thing  that's  given  us  for  some 
purpose.  Maybe  the  purpose  gets  clouded.  I'm 
afraid  I'm  an  awful  duffer  at  saying  what  I 
mean.  But  we've  got  to  work  it  out,  do  you 
see?  Or — or  the  whole  scheme  is  upset."  The 
ministry  seems  to  me  a  thing  like  that,  given  us 

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THE   MINISTRY   OF   RECONCILIATION 

for  some  clear  purpose,  just  as  it  was  given  to 
Jesus  for  a  clear  purpose.  Maybe  the  purpose 
gets  clouded,  though  it  never  did  with  him. 
But  we  have  got  to  work  it  out,  or  the  whole 
scheme  is  upset,  the  whole  scheme  of  his  ministry 
and  ours.  We  cannot  endure  to  think  of  what 
would  have  happened  if  the  purpose  of  recon- 
ciliation had  got  clouded  in  his  hands.  Every- 
thing would  have  been  upset.  I  wonder  how  he 
feels  when  he  sees  the  ministry  of  reconciliation 
getting  clouded  in  any  other  minister's  hands 
in  any  small  town  or  large  city.  It  upsets  the 
whole  scheme  if  one  man  fails.  Every  man  of 
us  must  keep  the  divine  purpose  free  from  cloud, 
and  the  divine  scheme  free  from  the  peril  of 
being  upset. 

Modern  men  need  to  be  changed  in  their  atti- 
tude from  enmity  to  friendship  with  God,  from 
indifference  to  him  to  harmony  with  him.  The 
sense  of  guilt  within  causes  men  to  hate  him. 
Men  are  alienated  from  him  in  the  spirit  of  their 
minds.  That  old  evangelistic  cry  which  urged 
men  to  "get  right  with  God"  may  sound  crude 
and  unrefined  to  oversensitive  ears,  but  in  its 
deepest  meaning  it  expresses  man's  deepest 
need.  And  helping  men  to  get  right  with  God 
is  the  fundamental  task  as  it  is  the  truest  joy  of 
the  ministry.  Once  there  was  One  who  was 
wholly  right  with  God.    He  reveals  in  his  life 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

the  full  meaning  of  the  words.  He  is  the  living 
definition  of  the  words.  They  do  not  seem  crude 
or  unrefined  when  applied  to  him.  Once  there 
was  a  Minister  who  gave  himself  utterly,  through 
his  whole  life,  to  this  ministry  of  reconciliation, 
to  getting  men  right  with  God.  Our  earth  has 
seen  no  other  such  man,  no  other  such  minister. 
"He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear." 

I  cannot  close  this  part  of  our  subject  without 
some  words  on  another  phase  of  the  ministry  of 
reconciliation.  Men  are  alienated  from  one 
another.  The  love  of  man  for  man  is  as  rare 
as  the  love  of  man  for  God.  Race  hatred,  class 
hatred,  the  caste  system  in  all  lands,  prejudice 
and  bitterness  between  men  and  nations,  all 
these  abound.  Brotherhood  seems  farther  off 
than  it  did  ten  years  ago.  The  well-nigh  uni- 
versal attitude  to  the  Jew  and  the  Negro,  the 
special  attitude  to  the  Japanese  and  Chinese, 
the  easy  use  of  such  terms  as  "Dago"  and 
"Greaser,"  "Sheeny,"  "Chink"  and  "Nigger"  all 
indicate  the  same  thing.  The  vast  war  with  its 
wickedly  exaggerated  nationalism,  its  hate  of 
race  for  race,  its  false  alignments  and  savagery, 
is  a  world  spectacle  to  men  and  angels.  The 
ministry  of  reconciliation  seems  to  have  been 
forgotten,  or  lost  or  cast  into  the  waste  heap. 
It  used  to  be  said  that  if  men  got  right  with  God 
they  would  get  right  with  men.    But  it  does  not 

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THE   MINISTRY   OF  RECONCILIATION 

seem  quite  wise  to  get  right  with  God  by  effort 
or  process,  and  with  men  only  by  inference.  It 
does  not  work  well.  Maybe  that  is  the  kind  of 
Christianity  that  men  say  has  broken  down,  the 
kind  that  retains  its  faith  and  its  hate  at  the 
same  time. 

Surely,  if  there  ever  was  a  time  for  a  ministry 
of  reconciliation  in  this  human  life,  this  is  such 
a  time.  Other  ministries,  seeing  our  impotence, 
set  themselves  up,  cut  in  behind  us  with  new 
channels  and  currents,  but  there  is  only  one 
ministry  that  can  bring  about  brotherhood, 
peace  and  good  will  among  men,  and  that  is  the 
ministry  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  ministry  that 
stands  in  his  stead,  in  his  relation  to  both  God 
and  men.  If  we  are  impotent  here,  then  heaven 
save  the  world.  May  I  refer  to  two  conversa- 
tions, occurring  far  apart  in  my  own  life,  as 
bearing  upon  this  matter?  Many  years  ago  I 
was  riding  across  a  part  of  Ohio  with  a  well- 
known  judge  of  a  superior  court,  a  devout  man 
and  wise.  We  talked  of  many  things  in  earth 
and  heaven  and  under  the  earth.  I  was  still 
young  enough  to  be  able  to  ask  large  questions, 
which  ability  belongs  to  the  unspoiled  wisdom  of 
youth.  Finally  I  put  this  large  question  to  that 
famous  man:  "What  is  the  most  important  and 
the  most  difficult  thing  in  the  world .f^"  We  both 
smiled.     After  a  moment  the  judge  turned  to 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

me  and  answered:  "The  question  is  large  and 
staggering,  but  proper.  I  think  the  most  im- 
portant and  the  most  diflScult  thing  in  the  world 
is  to  get  the  spirit  and  principles  of  Jesus  to 
prevail  in  the  lives  and  relations  of  men."  And 
the  train  rolled  on  as  though  no  epiphany  had 
come,  but  to  that  young  minister  the  bushes  we 
passed  seemed  burning  bushes  out  of  which  the 
voice  of  God  had  come  again  as  in  the  olden 
time.  "To  get  the  spirit  and  principles  of  Jesus 
to  prevail  in  the  lives  and  relations  of  men!" 
That  would  seem  to  be  the  task  of  the  ministry 
of  reconciliation  all  the  time,  and  doing  it  would 
seem  to  glorify  that  task. 

The  other  conversation  was  much  later.  Po- 
sitions were  reversed  as  to  years.  A  youth  in 
one  of  the  universities  came  to  me  on  a  day 
when  I  was  in  residence  as  university  preacher 
for  the  week.  He  came  to  talk  of  a  thesis  he 
was  preparing,  and  this  is  what  he  said,  in  sub- 
stance: "The  theme  upon  which  I  am  working 
is  'The  Synthesis  of  the  Nations.'  "  I  opened  a 
window  when  he  said  that.  You  cannot  have 
a  subject  like  that  running  around  in  a  room 
with  no  chance  for  it  to  escape.  He  went  on: 
"The  nations  of  the  earth  and  the  races  of  men 
either  openly  hate  one  another,  or  live  in  armed 
neutrality,  or  in  alliance  based  upon  fear  or 
hatred  of  other  nations,  each  seeking  at  almost 

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THE   MINISTRY  OF  RECONCILIATION 

any  cost  advantage  over  all  others.  The  world 
is  an  armed  camp  either  in  fact  or  in  spirit.  And 
I  do  not  see  how  God  Almighty  stands  it.  I  can 
hardly  stand  it  myself.  This  kind  of  thing  can- 
not be  permanent.  Somehow  the  nations  and 
the  races  must  be  made  one  in  spirit  and  pur- 
pose. They  cannot  be  united  around  a  cannon 
— cannons  separate  men;  or  a  dollar — dollars  di- 
vide men;  or  a  creed — creeds  are  not  personal 
enough.  They  can  only  be  made  one  around  a 
person,  and  as  far  as  I  can  see  there  is  only  one 
Person.  They  will  not  unite  around  Moham- 
med, or  Confucius,  or  Buddha,  or  Napoleon,  or 
Caesar,  ancient  or  modern.  They  may  not  be- 
come one  at  all.  The  world  plans  may  fail,  but 
if  the  world  is  to  be  made  one,  it  can  only  be 
made  one  around  Jesus  Christ."  The  bushes 
outside,  on  the  campus,  glowed  with  their  au- 
tumn color,  but  that  minister,  looking,  seemed 
to  see  them  again  as  burning  bushes,  out  of 
which  the  word  of  the  Lord  had  come  as  in  the 
olden  time. 

Need  I  go  on.?  Do  you  not  see. f^  The  ministry 
of  reconciliation  will  bring  nigh  to  God  them 
that  are  far,  and  there  will  be  rings  and  robes 
and  Father's  welcomes.  The  ministry  of  recon- 
ciliation will  bring  together  those  that  are  sep- 
arated, bring  them  together  in  Him  who  is  our 
peace.    The  ministry  has  a  task  of  world  recon- 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

ciliation  at  this  hour  which  ought  to  drive  it  to 
the  very  heart  of  God.  The  ministry  is  not  a 
small  thing.  There  is  a  world  ministry.  It  is 
for  that  ministry  in  the  Redeemer's  name  to 
perform  the  world  task.  Diplomacy  cannot  do 
it.  No  other  force  can  that  does  not  stand  with 
the  atoning,  reconciling  Christ.  It  is  for  that 
ministry  which  has  his  spirit  and  bears  his  name 
to  make  a  kingdom  out  of  chaos,  a  brotherhood 
out  of  confusion.  And  this  is  the  high  hour. 
It  is  a  life  worth  dying  for.  Once  in  a  while 
it  breaks  out  in  our  human  history.  The 
moral  ends  of  a  vicarious  life  lay  hold  of  a  man 
and  he  cries,  "Blot  me,  I  pray  thee,  out  of  thy 
book,"  or  "I  could  wish  myself  accursed,"  or 
"For  their  sakes  I  sanctify  myself."  And  such  a 
ministry  ceases  to  be  professional;  its  doctrines 
have  value  not  because  they  can  be  preached, 
but  because  they  can  be  worked;  the  atonement 
becomes  a  personal  power  instead  of  remaining 
a  doctrinal  mystery.  Then  this  modern  min- 
istry "fills  up  in  its  own  person  that  which  is 
lacking  in  Christ's  afflictions  on  behalf  of  his 
body,  the  church,  that  it  may  bring  every  one 
into  God's  presence,  made  perfect  through 
Christ."  This  at  least  the  ministry  must  mean 
to  a  man  who  is  in  earnest. 


164 


LECTURE  V 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  RESCUE 

"The  Son  of  man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save 
that  which  was  lost." 


LECTURE  V 
THE  MINISTRY  OF  RESCUE 

The  methods  of  Jesus's  ministry  are  not  par- 
ticularly luminous  as  to  details.  You  cannot 
learn  how  he  prepared  his  sermons,  how  he  did 
his  pastoral  work,  "how  he  managed  a  church 
or  was  managed  by  one,"  or  any  of  the  common 
details  that  play  so  large  a  part  in  the  normal 
routine  of  our  lives.  These  details  are  not  of 
great  importance  in  his  life.  There  are,  how- 
ever, two  questions  of  very  large  significance: 
one,  how  he  came  to  be  and  continued  to  be  the 
kind  of  Person  who  could  have  such  a  ministry; 
the  other,  the  question  of  the  spirit  and  purpose 
of  his  life  as  they  worked  out  in  his  ministry.  At 
the  risk  of  wearisome  repetition  let  me  say  again 
that  my  whole  purpose  in  these  studies  is  to 
base  our  ministry  upon  and  relate  our  lives  to 
the  ministry  and  life  of  Jesus  Christ.  If  we  are 
to  be  good  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ,  we  must 
be  like  him  in  the  essential  character,  in  the 
spirit  and  purpose,  in  the  relations  and  quality 
of  our  ministry.  This  is,  for  us,  the  real  "imi- 
tation of  Christ." 

Now,  no  one  can  get  far  into  the  ministry  of 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

Jesus  without  feeling  in  it  the  element  of  rescue 
as  an  essential  element.  You  will  hear  this  note 
striking  all  the  time.  It  is  in  what  he  says  and 
in  what  he  does.  It  surrounds  and  sustains  his 
ministry  like  an  atmosphere.  But  for  this  there 
would  have  been  no  ministry  for  Jesus.  Rescue 
is  not  incidental,  it  is  fundamental  in  his  life. 
You  read  such  words  as  these:  "The  Son  of 
man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which 
was  lost,"  with  the  sense  that  they  state  the 
purpose  and  method  of  his  whole  life.  I  am 
using  this  word  "rescue"  as  covering  all  that  we 
mean  by  evangelism  in  all  its  large  significance. 
And  by  evangelism  I  mean  all  those  methods 
and  activities  by  means  of  which  he  is  brought 
to  men  and  men  are  brought  to  him  for  redemp- 
tion. Many  words  are  current  in  religious 
speech,  all  bearing  upon  the  same  thing.  Win- 
ning men,  soul-winning,  and  a  lot  of  others  are 
examples.  They  all  mean  substantially  the  same 
thing,  namely,  bringing  men  to  God  for  salva- 
tion and  recovery.  And  while  all  too  largely 
this  has  become  identified  with  a  certain  type  of 
meeting,  and  has  all  too  largely  passed  into  the 
hands  of  a  certain  type  of  men,  nevertheless  the 
thing  itself,  the  real,  genuine  thing,  lies  at  the 
center  of  your  ministry.  A  crucial  test  for  every 
man  at  the  beginning  of  his  ministry  is  this :  Do 
you  intend  to  be  the  kind  of  minister  who,  by  all 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  RESCUE 

the  good  means  possible  to  you,  will  through  all 
your  ministry  daily,  nightly,  constantly,  un- 
wearyingly,  lovingly,  humbly  endeavor  to  bring 
men  to  God?  For  men  now  in  the  ministry  the 
test  remains  the  same,  only  the  tense  being 
changed:  Are  you  the  kind  of  minister  who  is 
constantly  bringing  men  to  God?  For  men  at 
the  end  of  their  ministry,  the  test  is  still  the 
same,  the  tense  again  being  changed :  Have  you 
been  the  kind  of  minister  who  through  your  life 
has  constantly  brought  men  to  God?  If  you  do 
not  mean  to  be  such  a  minister,  if  you  are  not 
such  a  minister,  if  you  have  not  been  such  a 
minister,  will  you  be,  are  you,  have  you  been  at 
the  heart  of  your  ministry? 

I  know  the  theories  perfectly  well  and  the 
easy  misapplication  of  Paul's  words  about 
prophets,  evangelists,  pastors,  and  teachers. 
And  I  know  how  some  men  choose  to  lay  their 
emphasis  upon  social  service,  others  upon  an 
orderly  worship,  and  others  upon  a  didactic 
pulpit.  And  all  this  is  well  if  the  right  motive 
and  right  center  be  in  it.  But  to  what  end,  for 
what  good  are  all  these  features  of  a  ministry 
unless  they  bring  men  to  God,  unless  they  win 
men  and  hold  them  to  Christ?  Some  men  even 
affect  a  certain  pious  contempt  for  soul-winners, 
and  count  themselves  superior  beings  because 
they  are  skilled  in  the  use  of  the  liturgy  or  be- 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

cause  they  are  didactic  in  their  preaching.  And 
some  men  have  never  been  out  on  a  mountain 
or  anywhere  else  in  a  storm  hunting  for  lost 
sheep  belonging  to  them.  They  hire  all  that 
done  by  professional  sheep-hunters.  And  pro- 
fessional sheep-hunting  has  become  a  regular 
business  commanding  high  wages  and  much 
attention.  These  men  do  not  hunt  their  own 
sheep;  they  have  none  to  hunt.  And  the  real 
shepherds  who  do  have  the  sheep  turn  over  the 
job  of  seeking  lost  ones  to  the  professionals. 
Maybe  the  figure  is  getting  mixed  here,  but  the 
idea  is  clear.  The  saddest  thing  in  our  ministry 
is  this  thing  of  turning  our  real  business  over  to 
some  one  else  to  do,  no  matter  what  the  motive. 

I  think  I  ought  to  say  one  or  two  other  things 
before  getting  into  the  discussion  more  formally. 

First:  Do  not  identify  this  thing  with  any 
method  of  doing  it.  Maybe  you  think  you  could 
not  be  a  revivalist  or  conduct  a  revival  with  any 
success.  Maybe  you  think  your  gifts  are  of 
another  sort,  possibly  a  superior  sort.  Maybe 
you  compare  yourself  with  one  or  more  of  the 
famous  evangelists  dead  or  living  and  feel  the 
utter  impossibility  of  your  doing  things  as  they 
have  done  or  are  doing  them.  But  in  your 
Master's  name,  now,  remember  two  things: 
never  conclude  that  you  cannot  do  this  thing 
until  you  have  honestly  and  earnestly  and  per- 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  RESCUE 

sistently  tried.  And  maybe  you  can  do  this 
quite  as  well  as  you  can  preach,  which  you 
keep  on  doing,  whether  you  do  it  well  or  not. 
And  do  not  for  an  hour  imagine  that  this  is  the 
only  way  or  the  chief  way  of  persuading  men 
to  give  their  hearts  to  God.  This  is  a  dramatic 
way.  The  public  is  impressed  by  it.  It  is  one 
of  the  good  ways,  but  by  no  means  the  only 
one. 

Second:  Do  not  overestimate  the  value  of 
religious  argument,  or  the  difficulty  of  persuad- 
ing men  by  other  measures.  Men  are  not,  as  a 
rule,  influenced  so  much  by  an  argument  as  they 
are  by  an  interest  and  a  testimony.  The  man 
you  have  beaten  in  an  argument,  or  the  man 
who  has  beaten  you  is  not  likely  to  be  in  the 
mood  to  do  what  you  wish.  But  there  is  no 
answer  to  the  testimony,  modestly  borne,  and  a 
personal  interest,  kindly,  wisely,  and  contin- 
uously shown.  Love  and  a  Christlike  life  will 
go  a  long  way  toward  winning  men. 

Third:  Keep  at  it.  Make  a  vow  now  never 
to  cease  this  effort  while  you  are  in  this  min- 
istry. Men  are  always  urging  me  to  deal  faith- 
fully with  young  men,  and  this  is  well.  But 
youth  is  not  our  tragedy.  Mid  life  and  old  age 
furnish  the  occasion  for  our  chief  concern. 
Youth  has  enthusiasm  and  hope.  It  has  not 
become  cautious  and  doubtful.    It  feels  that  it 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

must  have  seals  to  its  ministry  and  goes  out  to 
get  them.  But  when  youth  is  past,  a  new  spirit, 
not  always  a  better  one,  comes.  We  preach 
abler  sermons,  make  fewer  mistakes,  and  win 
fewer  souls.  We  remember  the  glories  of  an 
earlier  ministry,  but  do  not  look  for  any  burn- 
ing bushes,  or  gushing  rocks,  or  cloven  tongues, 
or  rushing  mighty  winds  any  more.  And  we 
reach  the  deadline  by  becoming  dead  men.  But 
in  this  matter  of  persuading  men  our  strength 
should  increase  from  year  to  year.  At  thirty  we 
ought  to  do  it  well;  at  forty  we  ought  to  be 
showing  real  signs  of  promise;  at  fifty  promise 
should  be  reasonably  assured;  at  sixty  we  ought 
to  be  well-nigh  irresistible;  from  seventy  on  no 
one  should  be  able  to  stand  up  against  our 
Christlike  power  to  persuade  young  and  old. 
This  will  insure  a  ministry  whose  leaf  shall  not 
wither  and  whose  fruitfulness  shall  not  cease. 
Be  concerned,  therefore,  not  only  for  the  days 
of  your  youth,  but  for  those  other  days  that 
surely  draw  near  when  no  one  has  any  pleasure 
in  them. 

Fourth:  Do  not  allow  yourselves  to  be  mis- 
taken as  to  the  need  of  a  ministry  of  rescue,  an 
evangelistic  as  well  as  an  evangelical  ministry. 
Do  not  be  misled  by  any  academic  theories  of 
man's  condition.  You  face  exactly  the  same 
kind  of  life  that  Jesus  faced.     He  knew  men 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  RESCUE 

and  what  was  in  them.  He  did  not  need  that 
any  one  should  tell  him.  He  estimated  the  men 
and  women  of  his  day  with  a  divine  accuracy. 
And  he  spoke  such  parables  as  the  parables  of 
the  lost  son,  the  lost  sheep,  and  the  lost  coin. 
He  spoke  of  the  sick  needing  physicians.  He 
dealt  with  blind,  deaf,  palsied,  leprosied  peo- 
ple. He  had  the  transactions  with  Nicode- 
mus,  the  woman  at  the  well,  Zacchseus,  the  rich 
ruler,  the  Pharisees,  and  a  lot  of  others.  The 
cases  are  not  all  alike,  but  they  are  all  like 
cases  that  will  be  in  every  town  where  you  will 
be  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ.  His  view  of  all 
these  cases  was  infinitely  serious.  His  words 
about  them  always  mean  more  rather  than  less 
than  they  say.  For  him,  and  surely  for  us,  the 
serious  thing  in  human  life  is  its  moral  failure 
and  separation  from  God.  For  him,  and  like- 
wise surely  for  us,  the  supreme  test  is  found  in 
his  relation  and  our  relation  to  the  sinners  of 
the  race.  Even  theological  competence  is  tested 
by  its  evangelistic  attitude.  In  Jesus's  day 
men  and  women  by  thousands,  men  and  women 
in  general,  had  missed  the  mark.  God  was  not 
in  their  lives.  They  had  forgotten  that  they 
belonged  to  God.  Those  that  were  whole  were 
not  numerous.  You  need  not  hold  any  false  or 
exaggerated  view  of  human  depravity.  The 
truth  was  enough  to  bring  him  from  the  skies. 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

And  Jesus  took,  not  a  mild,  negative  attitude 
to  sinners,  not  an  attitude  simply  of  pity  or 
sympathy,  of  willingness  to  help  where  help  was 
desired.  You  know  that  does  not  tell  the  story 
of  his  life  at  all.  He  did  not  send  out  a  hired 
man  to  tell  lost  sheep  that  the  shepherd  was  at 
home  and  would  make  them  welcome  if  they 
should  choose  to  come  home.  Phillips  Brooks 
said  something  like  this:  "Christianity  at  last 
seems  to  me  to  be  just  a  great,  dear  Figure 
standing  with  outstretched  arms."  It  seems  to 
me  to  be  that  and  much  more.  That  great, 
dear  Figure  was  not  content  just  to  stand  with 
outstretched  arms  either  in  heaven  or  on  earth. 
His  attitude  was  far  more  positive  than  that. 
The  Shepherd  on  the  hills  in  the  storm  is  a 
truer  picture!  He  did  not  simply  advertise  his 
services  and  put  up  a  standing  notice  saying 
that  all  are  invited  or  that  everybody  would  be 
welcome.  He  did  not  simply  tell  men  of  a  holy 
city  with  gates  on  every  side,  into  which  they 
could  come  if  they  wished.  You  can  learn  many 
lessons  from  the  life  of  Jesus,  but  evangelistic 
complacency  is  not  one  of  them,  nor  evangelistic 
hopelessness,  nor  evangelistic  indifference.  Sin- 
ners never  would  have  come  to  him  if  he  had 
not  first  come  to  sinners.  They  never  would 
have  sought  him  out  if  he  had  not  first  sought 
them.    If  you  want  a  real  experience  that  will 

174 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  RESCUE 

stir  your  soul,  sit  down  and  soberly  read  any 
Gospel  through,  thinking  only  as  you  do  it  of 
Christ's  attitude  to  sinful  men  and  women. 
Leave  to  one  side  the  questions  of  eschatology, 
the  questions  of  reform,  the  questions  of  criti- 
cism, and  just  let  him  make  his  own  impression 
on  you  as  the  seeker  and  winner  of  souls.  Do 
not  bring  to  this  experience  prepossessions  which 
will  hinder  the  influences  that  will  naturally  flow 
from  it.  And  yet  even  with  your  prepossessions 
you  will  hardly  escape  the  force  of  what  you  will 
find,  the  attitude  of  Jesus  to  sinners.  There  is 
nothing  else  like  it  in  religious  history  or  human 
life,  it  is  so  positive,  so  aggressive,  so  hopeful, 
so  universal.  If  there  were  no  other  proof  that 
he  came  from  God,  this  would  furnish  it. 

I  wish  this  might  be  made  so  vivid  and  ar- 
resting that  we  could  see  his  ministry  and  atti- 
tude toward  the  moral  and  spiritual  failures  of 
the  world;  his  determination  to  recover  them  at 
any  cost;  the  concentration  of  his  interest  upon 
them.  It  is  all  so  positive  and  plain  in  its  pur- 
pose that  it  really  seems  hard  to  miss.  Yet  we 
do  miss  it,  and  we  do  take  an  attitude  which 
does  not  square  with  his,  and  content  ourselves 
with  a  spirit  that  comes  far  short  of  his.  We 
offer  men  another  chance,  we  open  a  door  and 
give  men  the  privilege  of  entering,  we  regard 
the  recovery  of  spiritual  failures,  moral  wrecks 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

as  part  of  our  task,  we  devote  fixed  seasons  to 
it,  we  give  this  business  what  we  can  spare 
from  other  business.  That  other  Minister  cen- 
tered the  energies  of  his  grace  upon  such  men. 
Their  failure  seemed  to  him  the  sad  chief  thing 
in  their  Hves,  their  recovery  the  glorious  chief 
thing  in  his.  They  got  supreme  consideration 
at  his  hands.  He  not  only  gave  them  an  oppor- 
tunity; they  could  hardly  escape  him.  This 
was  not  the  overflow  of  his  ministry.  This  was 
its  heart. 

This  was  the  thing  called  zeal  that  finally  ate 
him  up.  He  had  many  interests,  but  only  one 
passion,  the  passion  for  humanity;  much  power, 
but  only  one  use  for  it,  saving  men;  abundant 
truth,  but  only  one  pleasure  in  it,  that  it  would 
set  men  free.  And  he  was  not  afraid  of  contact 
nor  pessimistic  over  conditions.  It  seemed  to 
him  that  if  he  could  get  the  right  sort  of  con- 
tact with  men,  he  could  win  them;  that  there 
was  no  case  too  hopeless.  Once  in  a  while  he 
missed  it,  and  failed,  as  we  all  do.  The  rich 
young  ruler  walked  out  the  wrong  way  and 
left  a  hole  in  the  gospel  and  a  hurt  in  a  Min- 
ister's heart,  but  the  Minister  did  not  give  up 
because  of  it.  He  knew  humanity  for  what  it 
was  and  had  no  rose-colored  views  of  it,  but  he 
had  no  hopeless  views  either.  The  best  per- 
fectly knew  the  worst  and  had  the  most  hope 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  RESCUE 

for  it.  Nowhere  are  the  beliefs  of  Jesus  more 
significant  than  here.  And  nowhere  else  did  he 
practice  his  beliefs  more  hopefully  and  per- 
sistently. It  seemed  to  him  that  the  worst 
would  respond  and  could  respond  to  the  Best 
if  the  Best  would  go  far  enough.  So  without 
measuring  distance  the  Best  went  the  whole 
length.  He  did  not  stop  even  with  the  second 
mile. 

And  you  cannot  do  your  work  unless  you 
have  that  other  Minister's  passion  for  men,  and 
share  their  lives  as  he  did,  and  touch  them  with 
hope  like  his  own.  Long-range  evangelism  will 
never  win  a  world. 

As  we  read  his  story  with  this  in  mind  we 
shall  see  how  he  regarded  and  treated 
individuals.  We  are  in  a  sort  of  reaction 
against  individualism,  a  reaction  both  foolish 
and  wise:  foolish  because  there  cannot  be  any 
religion  that  is  not  individual,  wise  because  re- 
ligion can  never  stop  with  being  individual. 
But,  my  brethren,  as  long  as  you  have  the  ex- 
ample of  that  other  Minister  before  your  eyes 
you  cannot  lend  yourselves  to  any  foolishness 
about  not  caring  for  the  individual.  He  did  not 
deal  with  classes  as  such,  but  with  individuals 
like  Nicodemus;  not  with  fish  dealers  as  a  class, 
but  with  the  sons  of  Zebedee;  not  with  certain 
women  as  a  group,  but  with  the  woman  of 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

Samaria  as  a  person.  And  this,  I  must  believe, 
is  the  divine  way  of  evangelism  in  this  world 
after  all  the  centuries.  He  talked  much  of  the 
Kingdom.  He  ever  went  after  the  people  who 
could  make  a  kingdom.  Some  later  ministers 
talk  much  of  the  Kingdom,  but  make  no  recruits 
or  citizens  for  it.  Some  even  despise  recruiting. 
For  the  purpose  of  Jesus,  which  was  redemp- 
tion, this  method  of  his  had  to  be  the  method. 
He  did  not  allow  the  individual  to  wither.  He 
got  into  the  group  through  the  individual.  He 
had  the  same  temptation  we  have  to  deal  with 
men  in  masses.  It  looked  then  as  it  looks  now, 
like  statesmanship,  like  doing  the  big  thing  in  a 
big  way,  to  deal  with  men  in  masses.  But 
Jesus  saw  his  own  vision  clearly  and  held  to  his 
own  program  steadily,  and  the  centuries  call 
him  wise.  He  did  not  make  hard-and-fast  bar- 
riers between  things  that  run  into  one  another, 
like  rescue  and  social  service.  He  told  the 
story  of  the  woman  who  in  order  to  find  her 
lost  coin  upset  her  whole  house,  but  never  for- 
got that  she  was  after  a  coin  that  was  lost. 
The  house  was  cleaned,  but  the  coin  was  found. 
Now,  take  two  personal  cases  out  of  his  own 
experience,  instances  often  described  and  per- 
fectly familiar,  involving  people  at  opposite 
poles  of  social  life  and  character — Nicodemus 
and  the  woman  at  the  well.    No  severer  tests 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  RESCUE 

come  to  anyone  than  the  way  he  treats  people 
of  honor  and  people  of  shame,  the  respectable 
and  the  disgraced.  If  the  angels  in  heaven  had 
any  interest  in  Jesus's  earthly  career,  they  must 
have  looked  on  with  breathless  interest  and  rap- 
turous delight  during  these  two  interviews. 
Here  is  Nicodemus,  respected  and  respectable, 
pious  and  cautious,  attractive  and  decent,  ap- 
parently not  far  from  the  Kingdom  already. 
Why  not  make  a  concession  to  him.^^  Why  not 
conciliate  him  a  little.'^  Why  not  go  even  more 
than  haK  way  to  get  a  man  like  this?  Men  of 
this  kind  are  hard  to  get,  and  are  worth  a  lot 
for  advertising  purposes.  It  is  much  easier  to 
get  an  outcast  than  a  Brahman.  And,  anyhow, 
ought  we  not  to  recognize  the  excellence  of 
people  like  this.^^  Why  set  up  unreasonable  and 
academic  standards  for  them.^^  Let  us  deal  with 
such  men  on  the  basis  of  a  sweet  reasonableness. 
They  are  personally  all  right.  All  they  need  is  a 
change  of  religion,  not  a  change  of  heart.  So 
men  might  have  reasoned. 

What  did  happen  when  Jesus  met  that  gen- 
uinely choice  and  desirable  man.?  Just  what 
should  have  happened,  just  what  should  always 
happen.  There  is  neither  cringing,  nor  com- 
promise, nor  bravado.  A  fool  would  have 
yielded  everything,  or  would  have  gone  to  the 
other  extreme;  would  have  taken  Nicodemus  in 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

a  rush  or  made  a  false  show  of  courage  as  some 
have  done.  He  might  have  said:  "I  have  a 
chance  at  this  self-satisfied  Sanhedrist.  I  do 
not  often  get  one  of  them  before  me.  I  will 
give  it  to  this  one  in  plain  terms,  and  will  lay 
down  the  law  to  him  and  all  the  rest  of  them." 
Once  in  a  while  you  will  find  a  preaching  man, 
more  eager  to  show  a  false  courage  than  to 
state  a  truth  in  love  or  win  a  man.  Such  a  man 
positively  exults  in  the  doctrines  of  the  new 
birth  and  eternal  punishment,  as  though  these 
doctrines  were  clubs  with  which  to  hammer 
men,  especially  decent  men.  And  both  doc- 
trines are  to  be  held  tenderly  and  spoken  in 
Christ's  spirit  of  love,  love  not  for  the  doctrines 
alone,  but  chiefly  for  the  men  to  whom  they  are 
spoken.  Really,  it  would  be  a  fine  lesson  in 
evangelism  to  spend  a  month  getting  into  the 
mind  of  the  Master,  acquiring  his  spirit  and 
possibly  his  very  tones  and  bearing  as  he  went 
on  with  this  choice  man.  You  may  not  win 
your  man  at  once.  Evidently,  Jesus  did  not 
immediately  win  Nicodemus.  But  the  case  is 
one  of  the  very  clearest  illustrations  we  have  of 
how  to  hold  your  standards  and  win  your  man, 
of  how  to  hold  your  standards  for  the  winning 
of  your  man.  You  must  insist  upon  the  new 
birth  of  such  men,  not  as  a  threat,  but  as  a 
privilege,  a  requirement  and  opportunity  that 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  RESCUE 

stand  in  the  soil  of  God's  indescribable  love  for 
the  world.  Turn  swiftly  to  that  other  story, 
the  story  of  the  woman  at  the  well,  a  story  so 
easy  to  misread  and  so  full  of  meaning  in  mod- 
ern life,  this  wretched  modern  life  with  its 
bruised  and  broken  womanhood  in  so  many 
lands.  This  woman  is  not  a  high-caste,  but  an 
outcast.  Judaism  had  no  place  for  such  a 
woman  or  plan  for  her  redemption.  She  was 
not  attractive  nor  noble  nor  large-minded.  She 
was  positive,  narrow,  shallow,  and  disputatious. 
She  would  not  add  much  to  a  church.  She 
would  be  a  problem  if  she  came  in.  It  would 
have  been  easy  for  a  religious  teacher  to  be 
severe,  or  impatient,  or  hopeless,  or  sentimental 
about  her;  easy  to  think  of  her  as  belonging  to 
a  class.  It  is  easy  to  forget  that  the  class  must 
be  reached  through  the  person,  not  the  person 
through  the  class.  Here,  again,  you  must  hold 
your  truth  to  win  your  person,  use  your  truth 
to  win  your  person.  Read  that  whole  story 
over  again,  having  in  your  minds  all  the  stained, 
hopeless,  half-defiant  womanhood  of  our  mod- 
ern life;  all  the  loose  marriage  relations,  divorces 
and  remarriages  in  America;  all  that  countless 
womanhood  of  the  Orient  of  which  no  one  can 
speak  in  detail,  the  womanhood  of  the  lands 
without  Christ.  We  are  thinking  all  the  time 
of  rescuing  men  and  women.     Do  we  see  the 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

spirit  and  method  of  that  other  Minister  as  he 
dealt  with  people  like  these  in  such  fashion  as 
to  make  a  model  to  the  end  of  time?  Do  we 
have  his  spirit  for  such  work  in  our  own  minis- 
try? We  shall  not  be  good  ministers  of  Jesus 
Christ  unless,  like  him,  we  do  have  a  divine 
care  for  individuals  of  all  sorts  and  conditions. 
We  may  not  make  any  new  Gospels  or  Acts 
worthy  of  being  written  except  in  this  fashion. 
Remember  all  the  time  what  he  was  after.  It 
was  not  the  making  of  a  convert,  but  the  mak- 
ing of  a  character,  not  saving  from  penalty,  but 
saving  from  sin  and  death,  not  a  single  transac- 
tion, but  a  lifelong  process. 

For  the  recovery,  the  evangelizing  of  men 
Jesus  used  all  his  truth,  just  as  he  gave  all  his 
life.  He  did  not  hold  part  of  his  truth  as  though 
it  were  useful  for  this  purpose  and  part  of  it  for 
other  purposes.  Indeed,  I  think  I  will  say  that 
he  had  no  interest  in  truth  except  in  its  relation 
to  life  and  its  salvation.  This  made  and  makes 
truth  in  his  hands  and  ours  so  important.  For 
the  saving  of  men  he  used  all  the  truth  he  had. 
Maybe  that  explains  in  part  why  he  used  truth 
so  carefully,  so  sacredly.  It  always  needs  that 
personal  end  to  keep  it  from  being  academic. 
We  always  need  to  see  that  personal  purpose  to 
keep  us  from  being  careless  and  reckless  even  in 
our  use  of  the  truth.    Always  it  is  life  that  is 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  RESCUE 

to  be  saved.  And  for  this  purpose  all  truth  is  to 
be  used,  for  the  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  must 
use  the  whole  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  to  rescue 
and  redeem  the  whole  life.  Truth  is  not  a  thing 
simply  to  exhibit  in  the  forum,  display  in  the 
pulpit,  or  sell  in  the  market.  Truth  in  Christ's 
use  of  it  is  the  thing  that  sets  men  free.  The 
preaching  man  will  use  his  truth  with  the  evan- 
gelistic purpose  and  in  the  evangelistic  spirit. 
And  he  will  not  fling  things  out,  no  matter 
where  they  hit  or  whom  they  hurt.  The  spirit 
of  the  preacher  in  speaking  his  truth  is  the 
same  as  the  spirit  of  the  shepherd  hunting  his 
sheep.  The  evangelistic  purpose  is  absolutely 
necessary  as  the  atmosphere  in  which  to  get 
truth,  the  atmosphere  in  which  to  hold  it,  and 
the  atmosphere  in  which  to  preach  it.  For  their 
sakes,  that  they  may  be  sanctified  in  the  truth, 
the  preacher  and  the  truth  must  be  sanctified. 
You  will  probably  be  amazed  to  discover  how 
narrowly  men  have  interpreted  the  term  "saving 
truth,"  and  how  large  an  area  of  your  own 
truth  has  no  visible  relation  to  the  salvation  of 
men,  how  many  of  the  precious  things  you  have 
learned  have  no  apparent  relation  to  this  what- 
ever. When  the  average  minister  preaches  his 
farewell  sermon  on  the  text  "I  have  not  shunned 
to  declare  unto  you  all  the  counsel  of  God,"  he 
usually  means  that  he  has  not  avoided  the  dis- 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

agreeable  and  denunciatory  in  his  preaching, 
that  he  has  spoken  plainly  and  courageously. 
But  the  whole  counsel  of  God  is  so  rich,  so  full, 
so  gracious,  so  tender,  so  evangelical  that  it 
ought  not  to  be  identified  exclusively  with  the 
hard  truths  that  must  again  and  again  be 
spoken,  but  never  spoken  in  a  hard  spirit.  The 
evangelistic  purpose  to  save  all  hfe  will  de- 
termine for  the  preacher  the  meaning  of  such 
terms  as  whole  counsel  and  others  like  it. 
"Preaching  Christ"  for  this  purpose  will  not  be 
a  narrow  thing,  using  part  of  his  truth,  either 
the  hard  truth  or  the  gentle  truth  in  the  gospel. 
Preaching  Christ  and  declaring  God's  whole 
counsel  will  be  the  richest  and  most  abundant 
thing  in  the  whole  range  of  preaching.  It  is 
more  or  less  of  a  scandal  that  we  have  preached 
the  partial  truth.  And  we  are  paying  the  penalty 
for  it.  If  we  do  not  do  better,  we  must  face  the 
permanent  alienation  and  loss  of  countless  men 
from  Christ's  ranks.  We  cannot  touch  all  life 
unless  we  use  all  of  Christ's  truth.  Herein  is  a 
historic  tragedy.  A  careful  student  has  put  it 
thus:  "A  few  years  of  enthusiasm  and  blessing. 
Then  carelessness,  cessation  from  study,  no 
mental  and  spiritual  growth,  taking  success  for 
granted,  reliance  upon  methods  and  stock 
phrases,  and  a  sad  collapse  of  power.  No  form 
of  activity  needs  truth,  rich,  abundant,  living 

184 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  RESCUE 

truth,  as  evangelism  does.  Nowhere  does  intel- 
lectual laziness  meet  surer,  swifter  punishment. 
Many  mission  churches  fail  utterly  in  their  at- 
tempts to  reach  intelligent  workingmen  be- 
cause of  the  indolent  reiteration  of  threadbare 
phrases  and  a  failure  to  respect  an  audience." 
Evangelism  like  Christ's  will  not  only  use 
truth,  it  will  produce  truth;  not  only  use  sound 
doctrine,  but  produce  sound  doctrine.  For  the 
preacher  this  is  both  the  source  of  doctrine  and 
the  test  of  it.  His  truth  will  arise  and  grow  in 
this  atmosphere. 

In  this  matter  we  are  concerned  with  all  life. 
Using  all  our  truth  is  the  means,  reaching  all 
life  is  the  end.  Do  not  hold  any  shallow  or 
partial  views  as  to  the  truth  you  are  to  use. 
Do  not  hold  any  narrow  or  imperfect  views  as 
to  the  life  you  are  to  reach  in  Christ's  name  for 
salvation.  You  are  not  ministers  of  a  fragment 
of  the  counsel  of  God,  nor  to  a  class  of  the 
people  for  whom  Christ  lived  and  died.  For 
the  sake  of  rescue  you  will  use  all  truth,  hate  all 
sin,  and  seek  all  life.  Doctor  Chapman  tells 
how  one  night,  after  Captain  Sam  Hadley  had 
piloted  him  through  the  slums,  he  turned  and 
said:  "Brother,  as  long  as  you  live  preach  a 
gospel  that  can  reach  people  like  these."  So 
say  we  all.  And  when  Phillips  Brooks  finished 
his   noble   series   of   noonday   sermons   in   old 

185 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

Trinity,  at  the  head  of  Wall  Street,  he  might 
have  turned  to  any  minister  standing  near 
with  the  same  words:  "Brother,  as  long  as  you 
live  preach  a  gospel  that  can  reach  people  like 
these."  And  when  Henry  Drummond  finished 
at  University  of  Glasgow,  or  Edinburgh,  or  at 
Yale,  or  at  Student  Conference  at  Northfield, 
he  might  have  said  to  any  one  of  us:  "Brother, 
as  long  as  you  live  preach  a  gospel  that  can 
reach  people  like  these."  To  scholar  and  to 
bum,  to  respectability  and  to  shame,  to  adult 
and  to  youth,  to  Oriental  and  to  Occidental,  to 
every  person  in  every  condition,  in  every  land 
to  the  widest  range  of  life,  the  minister  of  Jesus 
has  a  ministry  of  rescue  from  the  life  that  now 
is  to  the  new  life  in  Jesus  Christ.  Do  not  cast 
away  any  truth  that  will  win,  nor  any  person 
who  can  be  won.  Here  you  stand  in  the  tangled 
growth  of  modern  life,  in  its  bewildering  paths, 
"where  cross  the  crowded  ways  of  life,"  to  guide 
the  steps  of  all  men  and  women  to  the  zone  of 
safety  in  the  Redeemer's  name;  to  keep  life 
from  being  run  down,  to  catch  up  the  life  that 
has  been  run  do\\Ti,  the  sheep  that  has  been 
torn  by  the  wolves,  the  son  that  has  got  lost, 
and  bring  all  of  them  home.  Rescue  or  evan- 
gelism, in  this  high  view  of  it,  cannot  be  re- 
garded as  a  small,  cheap  thing  practiced  by 
cheap  men  with  cheap  methods,  cheap  songs, 

186 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  RESCUE 

and  cheap  gimcracks,  touching  Hfe  in  ephemeral, 
partial  fashion.  This  is  the  high  water  mark  of 
work,  the  consummate  achievement  of  Chris- 
tian activity,  that  no  man  is  by  himself  great 
enough  to  reach  perfectly.  When  you  can  set 
Christ  forth  adequately  and  properly  to  any 
age,  when  you  can  bring  him  vitally  to  the  life 
of  man  and  society  in  all  lands  and  conditions, 
when  you  can  set  him  in  saving  relation  to  peo- 
ple in  all  classes,  you  may  go  to  the  head  of  the 
procession.  This  will  be  rescue  work  or  evan- 
gelism, and  nothing  else  will.  The  small  mounte- 
bankery  of  the  peddler  is  blistered  and  withered 
in  this  atmosphere.  This  will  be  preaching 
Christ  in  reality,  the  noblest  and  most  difficult 
thing  in  the  whole  range  of  preaching,  the 
severest  test  any  preacher  meets.  When  you 
can  do  this  so  as  to  touch  Sam  Hadley's  bums 
and  the  captains  of  industry,  the  unlettered 
mountaineer  and  the  scholar  of  high  degree,  all 
classes  in  all  places,  then  you  may  thank  God 
who  has  enabled  you  and  put  you  into  this 
ministry.  And  then  you  must  walk  with  special 
humility  before  men  and  angels,  for  evangelistic 
pride  quickly  destroys  evangelistic  power,  just 
as  greed  chokes  the  channels  of  grace. 

Now,  as  likely  as  not,  you  are  wondering  what 
I  am  going  to  say  about  methods  of  evangelism, 
and  hoping  that  easy,  sure,  and  reliable  ways  of 

187 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

doing  it  are  about  to  be  presented.  But,  really, 
the  question  of  method  is  not  half  as  important 
as  the  deeper  question  of  motive.  "The  evan- 
gelistic methods  must  not  dominate  the  evan- 
gelistic motives,"  said  dear  Dr.  James  Dennis. 
We  take  our  motives  for  granted,  which  is  not  a 
safe  or  wise  thing  to  do.  We  assume  that  our 
motives  are  all  right  and  that  only  our  methods 
are  faulty.  We  study  other  men's  methods, 
thinking  that  the  method  is  the  chief  thing.  But 
the  motive  is  vastly  more  important  in  this  as 
in  all  other  parts  of  the  ministry.  Wise  methods 
abound,  motives  are  weak  or  lacking.  The 
machinery  is  abundant,  but  not  automatic.  Of 
course  it  is  assumed  that  in  all  a  minister's  work 
his  motive  is  pure.  Surely,  there  is  no  such 
thing  among  us  as  a  genuinely  bad  or  a  seriously 
mixed  motive.  We  must  not  spoil  our  ministry 
by  the  motive  behind  or  in  it.  We  would  not 
do  good  work,  for  the  Master's  sake,  with  our 
own  advantage  or  advancement  as  a  by- 
product. We  cannot  keep  one  eye  upon  that 
other  Minister  and  the  other  on  some  coveted 
place.  That  would  destroy  our  power  to  see. 
We  could  not  stand  the  strain.  And,  surely, 
no  minister  would  rejoice  in  or  report  a  revival 
to  the  church  papers  with  any  idea  that  this 
would  attract  attention  to  himself.  Nor  will 
we  classify  our  converts  according  to  their  social 

188 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  RESCUE 

or  financial  prominence.  That  would  spoil  the 
whole  thing.  You  could  not  do  that  in  the 
presence  of  the  Master.  Our  motive,  then,  all 
the  time  must  be  like  his — pure  enough  to  see 
clear  through. 

But  this  is  only  the  alphabet  of  the  subject 
of  motive.  Many  motives  are  perfectly  pure, 
pure  as  dewdrops,  and  about  that  size.  Motive 
must  be  large  enough  to  last  and  to  move  in.  It 
takes  a  big  motive  to  last  a  lifetime,  to  keep  a 
ministry  moving  in  power  through  forty  or  fifty 
years.  It  takes  a  lot  of  water  to  float  a  navy. 
The  old  Oregon  would  have  cut  a  sorry  figure  in 
a  millpond  or  a  fountain.  She  required  sea 
room.  It  takes  a  big  motive  to  float  a  ministry 
that  is  doing  anything.  A  landlocked  inlet,  a 
quiet  harbor,  or  a  peaceful  bay  will  do  for  some. 
It  all  depends  on  the  ministry.  It  is  a  tragedy 
to  overtake  your  own  horizon  along  about  forty- 
five  or  fifty,  or  lose  your  motive  power  about 
that  time.  A  Civil  War  veteran  was  speaking 
one  day  of  his  wounds.  He  had  been  shot  twice, 
once  with  a  ball  that  plowed  through  flesh  and 
bones;  once,  as  he  playfully  said,  with  a  ball 
that  was  spent  when  it  hit  him.  Many  a  min- 
ister is  striking  a  town  with  the  force  of  a  spent 
ball.  That  probably  accounts  for  a  lot  of  things 
of  which  we  need  not  speak.  Particularly,  now, 
in  this  matter  of  evangelism  is  the  large,  lasting 

189 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

motive  needed.  This  sort  of  work  is  diflScult, 
full  of  failures,  tragic  with  falls  and  reverses. 
The  sower  of  tares  is  very  active  in  your  field. 
Again  and  again  the  apparently  hopeful  convert 
turns  back  and  walks  no  more  with  you.  Men 
who  ought  to  respond  promptly  are  slow,  ob- 
stinate, and  discouraging.  They  resent  your  in- 
terest and  regard  your  solicitude  as  an  imper- 
tinence. They  argue,  offer  trifling  excuses, 
criticize  the  church  members,  hide  behind  the 
lame  ducks  in  your  flock,  when  you  are  trying 
your  best  to  lead  them  to  Christ.  And  it  wears 
out  even  a  good  motive,  unless  it  has  endurance 
like  the  Master's.  A  young  man  was  asked  how 
many  times  he  had  proposed  marriage  to  a  cer- 
tain young  woman.  He  could  not  answer,  the 
times  were  so  many.  He  was  then  asked  how 
long  he  intended  to  keep  it  up,  and  replied, 
promptly,  "Until  I  win  her  or  some  one  else 
does."  That  was  a  motive  with  endurance  in  it. 
The  evangelistic  motive  must  have  the  quali- 
ties of  size  and  endurance,  must  be  big  enough 
to  move  in  and  large  enough  to  last.  Has  the 
blight  of  small  motive  fallen  upon  us?  The 
small  motive  withers  and  shrivels  everything  it 
touches.  Expectation  dries  up  and  enthusiasm 
is  quenched  by  it.  The  British  Weekly,  not 
long  ago,  said  this:  "We  would  not  for  a  mo- 
ment speak  uncharitably,  but  the  question  often 

190 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  RESCUE 

rises  whether  preachers  have  any  purpose  or 
any  desire  or  any  dream  of  bringing  souls  to 
Christ  by  the  sermons  they  preach.  We  have 
even  known  men  to  sneer  at  the  idea  that  the 
church  was  a  soul-saving  organization.  .  .  . 
Yet  if  it  is  not  that,  it  is  not  and  can  never  be 
the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ."  Test  your  mo- 
tives by  the  expectation  that  is  in  them.  Test 
your  sermons  by  that  test  and  see  how  many 
of  them  perish  utterly.  You  do  not  expect  men 
to  come  to  Jesus  Christ.  Very  well,  they  will 
not  come.  A  minister  was  complaining  to  Mr. 
Spurgeon  about  the  small  number  of  conver- 
sions in  his  ministry.  Mr.  Spurgeon  said,  with 
an  apparent  seriousness,  which  was  only  ap- 
parent and  not  real:  "You  surely  do  not  expect 
conversions  as  the  result  of  every  sermon,  do 
you?"  "O,  certainly  not,"  was  the  quick 
reply  of  one  who  did  not  want  to  seem  to  have 
unreasonable  expectations.  Then  the  great 
preacher  cut  clear  through  the  case  by  the 
quiet  words:  "Of  course  if  you  do  not  expect 
them,  you  will  not  have  them."  Only  those  who 
look  for  them  see  them,  only  those  who  must 
have  them  will  have  them.  I  think  many  men 
have  the  desire,  but  not  the  expectation.  They 
have  adopted  a  low  standard  of  expectation. 
They  are  quite  willing  to  attempt  great  things 
for  God,  to  engage  in  large  programs,  superb 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

enterprises.  But  they  do  not  expect  great 
things  from  God.  The  bhght  of  small  expecta- 
tion is  as  fatal  as  the  blight  of  small  motive. 
Many  a  ministry  is  dead,  and  many  a  congre- 
gation ready  to  be  buried,  because  they  no 
longer  expect  any  mighty  thing  to  happen  be- 
fore their  eyes.  Think  of  that  story  that  is 
told  of  President  Finney.  He  laid  down  before 
the  Lord  a  long  list  of  people  for  whose  con- 
version he  earnestly  prayed.  He  had  upon 
him  the  passion  of  desire  that  they  should  be 
saved.  He  poured  out  his  very  soul  in  eager 
asking  that  God  would  give  him  the  longing  of 
his  heart.  And  he  wound  up  his  prayer  with 
this  stroke  that  fairly  takes  the  breath  of  con- 
ventional men:  "And  thou  knowest,  O  Lord, 
that  in  these  matters  I  am  not  accustomed  to 
be  denied."  No  wonder  great  things  happened 
to  him.  God  does  not  disappoint  men  who 
have  such  expectancy  of  faith  and  have  it  all 
the  time.  For  the  vice  of  occasionalism  in  ex- 
pectation is  as  deadly  as  the  vice  of  smallness. 

Many  men  fall  victims  to  the  disease  of 
periodicity,  the  ailment  of  times  and  seasons. 
They  look  for  conversions,  they  expect  men  to 
turn  to  God  in  January,  in  Lent,  or  when  an 
evangelist  is  in  town,  or  once  in  every  five  or 
ten  years,  or  occasionally  at  an  evening  service. 
They  remember  that  Nicodemus  came  to  the 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  RESCUE 

Lord  by  night,  and  conclude  that  is  the  only 
time  of  day  to  come,  as  though  getting  religion 
were  like  wearing  a  dress  suit,  not  to  be  thought 
of  until  after  six  o'clock  in  the  evening.  They 
talk  or  at  least  think  of  the  Lord  as  having  set 
times  to  visit  Zion  for  the  redemption  of  people. 
When  conversions  do  occur  they  rejoice  in  hav- 
ing struck  a  set  time;  when  none  occur  they 
resign  themselves  piously  to  the  belief  that  this 
is  not  his  set  time.  Now,  I  have  a  lot  of  pa- 
tience with  a  lot  of  theology  with  which  I  do 
not  agree,  but  I  have  no  patience  at  all  with  this 
theology.  It  has  no  reputable  standing  in  any 
system.  Every  day  with  God  is  the  day  of 
salvation,  every  season  is  the  season  of  his 
presence  to  save  the  lost.  His  ear  is  not  heavy, 
his  arm  not  shortened,  and  his  heart  unwilhng 
on  any  day.  The  gates  of  his  mercy  stand  open 
day  and  night,  every  day  and  every  night.  The 
Good  Shepherd  is  forever  hunting  the  sheep  that 
are  lost  on  the  mountains,  the  Great  Physician 
forever  healing  the  hurt  of  his  people.  We  may 
be  complacent  a  good  part  of  the  time  if  we 
want  to  be,  but  let  us  not  justify  our  pastoral 
complacency  by  a  theology  which  does  not 
represent  in  any  measure  the  mind  and  heart 
of  that  other  Minister  who  knew  no  such  thing 
as  complacency. 

A  whole  week  might  be  given  to  the  study  of 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

evangelistic  methods,  and  we  can  give  only  a 
minute  to  it.  The  minister  with  the  evangehs- 
tic  motive  and  expectation  will  find  the  meth- 
ods. No  knowledge  of  methods  will  help  one 
without  the  motive.  Always  the  motive  must 
dominate  the  method.  Still,  I  must  say  two  or 
three  words  about  methods.  Good  methods  are 
better  than  bad  ones.  Methods  must  be 
adapted  to  the  ends  in  view.  Every  man  must 
use  his  own  and  not  another's.  Many  methods 
are  necessary.  You  must  use  all  good  methods 
as  you  must  use  all  good  truth  in  order  to 
reach  all  people.  Men  easily  slip  at  this 
point.  They  try  a  method,  hold  one  kind  of 
meeting,  and  get  no  results.  They  therefore 
abandon  their  efforts  for  that  year,  concluding 
that  nothing  can  be  done.  Or  they  try  one 
method  and  succeed.  Then  they  sit  down  in 
the  joy  of  their  success  and  falsely  conclude  that 
nothing  more  can  be  done.  You  see  the  foolish- 
ness of  this  the  minute  it  is  stated.  The  wise 
man,  failing  in  one  method,  as  even  wise  men 
sometimes  will,  will  prove  his  wisdom  by 
promptly  changing  his  method,  just  as  the 
skillful  fisherman  changes  his  bait  and  hook. 
The  wise  man  succeeding  in  one  fashion,  will 
promptly  consider  what  yet  remains  undone  and 
rejoicing  in  his  real  though  partial  success  will 
go  on  to  complete  what  has  been  begun.     The 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  RESCUE 

revivalist  uses  the  methods  of  the  revival,  the 
pastor  with  the  evangelistic  passion  will  use  all 
the  methods  he  knows,  and  be  at  it  all  the  year. 
I  once  asked  the  chairman  of  a  National  Cam- 
paign Committee  if  the  committee  expected  to 
secure  the  reelection  of  the  President  who  was 
then  a  candidate  for  reelection.  He  replied 
confidently  in  the  affirmative.  I  then  asked 
how,  by  what  methods,  they  expected  to  do  it. 
He  replied,  "By  every  method  that  will  win 
votes."  "What  value  do  you  place  upon  the 
great  meetings,  with  spellbinders,  orators,  brass 
bands,  processions,  and  the  like?"  "Very  great 
value.  We  could  not  succeed  without  them." 
"Could  you  reelect  the  President  by  these 
methods  alone .f^"  "Not  at  all.  There  are  mul- 
titudes who  are  never  touched  by  these  meet- 
ings. You  may  say  that  the  whole  population 
was  stirred  by  a  meeting,  but  it  never  was. 
We  must  use  different  methods  with  old  voters 
and  new  voters,  city  voters  and  country  voters, 
native  voters  and  foreign-born  voters,  capital- 
ist voters  and  overall  or  dinner-pail  voters,  but 
we  must  get  them  all.  Our  motive  is  the  re- 
election of  the  President.  Our  methods  must 
reach  every  voter  within  reach."  And  the  chil- 
dren of  light  should  be  as  wise  as  the  children 
of  this  world.  We  must  not  lose  any.  This 
must  be  our  passion.     Captain  Gracie,  a  sur- 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

vivor  of  the  Titanic  disaster,  died  a  year  after 
the  catastrophe.  His  last  words  were,  "We 
must  get  them  all  into  the  lifeboats."  The 
keen  intensity  of  an  hour  lasted  all  his  remain- 
ing days.  The  saving  of  some  did  not  make 
him  indifferent  to  the  loss  of  others.  The 
manager  may  get  out  the  largest  party  vote 
ever  obtained,  but  he  is  not  after  large  votes. 
He  is  after  all  voters  with  a  view  to  election. 
You  may  have  the  most  sweeping  revival  ever 
held  in  a  town,  but  that  must  not  blind  you  to 
the  many  who  have  not  even  been  touched  by 
it.  "We  must  get  them  all  into  the  lifeboat" — 
men,  women,  and  children.  Running  a  ship  is 
not  sufficient.  Carrying  all  the  passengers  in 
safety  through  calm  or  storm  from  port  to 
port  is  the  passion  of  a  true  captain.  Running 
a  church  is  not  enough.  The  ship  and  the 
church  are  important  only  for  their  service  as 
carriers,  in  calm  or  storm. 

I  cannot  take  time  to  consider  methods  in 
detail,  to  describe  them  in  their  working  or 
explain  their  use.  The  motive  must  forever 
dominate  the  method,  and  the  motive  will  use 
all  methods  that  are  good.  That,  I  think,  is  the 
thing  I  am  most  anxious  to  say  about  methods, 
that  for  the  salvation  of  all  people  you  will  use 
all  your  truth  and  all  good  ways. 

The  evangelistic  center  in  your  ministry  will 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  RESCUE 

keep  your  theology  sound  if  you  stick  to  your 
ministry.  If  you  go  off  on  even  an  evangelistic 
tangent  your  theology  will  go  with  you.  The 
evangelistic  church,  made  of  pastor  and  people, 
all  moved  by  Christ's  spirit,  not  hiring  their 
best  work  done  by  some  one  else,  will  much 
more  certainly  keep  true  to  Christ's  teaching 
than  any  other  kind  of  church.  The  truth  you 
use  will  be  determined  largely  by  your  evan- 
gelistic purpose.  The  truth  you  discover  will 
be  profoundly  affected  by  the  evangelistic  at- 
mosphere of  your  ministry. 

And  this  is  true  also  of  the  spirituality  of 
your  own  life  and  the  life  of  your  churches. 
You  have  some  bitter  days  ahead  of  you.  You 
are  going  to  sit  down  in  sorrow  as  you  mourn 
over  the  spiritual  state  of  your  churches.  You 
are  going  to  resort  to  special  efforts,  like  holding 
retreats  and  meetings  for  the  promotion  of  the 
spiritual  life.  You  will  call  in  exceptionally 
spiritual  men  to  instruct  your  people,  all  with 
a  view  to  creating  a  spiritual  church.  It  will 
seem  to  you  that  conversions  are  impossible  in 
such  a  church  as  yours  and  that  you  must  hold 
some  of  the  dreariest  of  all  meetings,  the  meet- 
ings for  working  up  the  church  so  that  a  soul 
could  be  reborn  in  it.  Nothing  could  be  much 
more  dismal  than  such  meetings  either  in  them- 
selves or  their  results.    Wise  men  always  know 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

what  has  happened  when  they  read  in  the 
church  paper  a  report  Hke  this:  "Special  meet- 
ings were  held  during  the  month  of  January. 
The  number  of  conversions  was  not  large,  but 
the  church  was  greatly  strengthened.  There 
was  a  good  spirit."  After  that  the  pastor  is 
often  moved  to  preach  a  series  of  sermons  on 
the  perils  of  religious  excitement.  My  brethren, 
if  your  church  has  gone  dead  or  goes  dead  on 
your  hands,  know  this,  that  nothing  will  so 
surely  raise  a  dead  church  to  life  as  the  spec- 
tacle of  a  conversion  taking  place  before  its 
eyes.  Men  do  not  easily  remain  spiritual. 
Spirituality  is  hard  to  keep  steady.  The  chan- 
nels of  grace  rather  easily  become  dry  and 
choked.  Spirituality  often  becomes  identified 
with  some  emotion  or  sensation  or  rapture.  I 
know  no  way  to  obtain  or  preserve  doctrines  in 
soundness  and  wholeness,  spirituality  in  its 
completeness,  moral  life  in  strength  and  beauty 
apart  from  a  church  in  which  many  are  ever 
being  turned  unto  righteousness,  converted 
from  their  sins,  and  made  whole  by  the  saving 
grace  of  the  redeeming  God. 

But,  finally,  back  of  all  motive  and  method 
must  be  the  evangelistic  man,  the  winner  of 
souls.  The  man  will  do  the  work.  There  is  no 
substitute  for  him.  He  is  the  final  necessity. 
Every  age  is  new,    every  community  different 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  RESCUE 

from  every  other.  Always  there  will  be  old 
theology  and  new  theology,  old  learning  and 
new  learning,  but  in  any  age  or  community 
holding  theology,  new  or  old,  equipped  with 
learning,  new  or  old,  the  good  minister  of  Jesus 
Christ  must  forever  be  the  kind  of  man  who 
brings  men  to  God  for  their  redemption.  Such 
a  one  will  shine  as  the  stars  forever  and  ever. 
The  ministry  knows  no  other  joy  equal  to  the 
joy  of  doing  this,  has  no  other  rewards  equal 
to  the  reward  of  doing  this.  You  can  go 
through  your  ministry  without  it.  You  may  be 
useful  and  happy  without  it.  You  may  come 
to  distinction  and  honor  without  it.  You  may 
win  the  conspicuous  places  and  prizes  of  the 
ministry  as  these  things  are  estimated  in  our 
world.  You  may  do  all  this  or  you  may  do  all 
this  and  also  you  may  win  men  to  God  through 
all  your  life.  But  at  the  end  of  the  day,  whether 
the  day  be  long  or  short,  I  know  what  you  will 
be  most  glad  to  remember.  I  know  how  you 
will  then  be  glad  to  go  into  that  other  Minis- 
ter's presence.  I  know  what  you  will  wish 
then  to  say,  reverently  and  humbly:  "These  are 
they  whom  thou  gavest  me,  in  New  York,  in 
Bombay,  or  in  country  place.  Not  one  of  them 
is  lost."  And  you  will  forget  the  steep  moun- 
tains and  the  stormy  nights,  the  wild  beasts, 
and  the  battles.    And  that  other  Minister  will 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

say,  "Well  done,"  and  will  put  on  your  head  a 
crown,  and  lo!  there  will  be  in  it  many  stars. 
Then  you  will  wonder  anew  at  the  grace  of  it 
all  and  will  gratefully  cast  your  crowns  at  his 
feet.  They  are  for  him,  and  not  for  you.  It  is 
enough  for  you  to  have  them  to  cast  before 
him. 


200 


LECTURE  VI 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  CONSERVATION 

"It  is  not  the  will  of  your  Father  which  is  in 
heaven,  that  one  of  these  .  .  .  should  perish." 


LECTURE  VI 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  CONSERVATION 

Modern  religious  usage  has  sanctified  cer- 
tain secular  terms,  and,  in  part,  adopted  cer- 
tain secular  methods.  Among  the  terms  thus 
freely  used  in  both  secular  and  religious  life 
are  "conservation,"  "efficiency,"  and  "by-pro- 
ducts." If  words  have  any  sense  of  pride  and 
self-importance,  these  words  might  easily  be- 
come puffed  up  and  self-conscious  in  view  of 
their  large  use.  Secular  methods  have  also 
come  over  into  our  religious  usage  and  we  talk 
freely  of  preventable  losses,  saving  by-products, 
and  the  like,  as  though  the  church  had  invented 
all  these  terms  and  methods.  All  this,  of  course, 
is  well,  though  it  does  not  seem  to  me  well  to 
exalt  to  supreme  authority  in  church  life  either 
"business  principles"  or  a  "business  adminis- 
tration," as  though  these  constituted  the  "pat- 
tern shown  in  the  mount,"  or  "let  down  from 
heaven."  There  are  churches  whose  pastors  are 
perfectly  good  business  men,  which  have  not 
heard  a  prophetic  note,  or  seen  a  vision,  or 
dreamed  a  dream  for  years.     The  pastors  are 

prodigiously  efficient  from  the  business  point  of 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

view,  seeing  to  it  that  all  bills  are  paid,  all 
pews  rented,  all  collections  taken,  but  the 
melancholy  motto  of  many  such  pastors  might 
well  be,  "I  am  neither  a  prophet  nor  the  son  of 
a  prophet."  Interests  thrive  mightily  for  a 
season,  but  in  the  long  run  "where  there  is  no 
vision,  the  people  perish."  Table-serving  may 
easily  prevent  an  apostolic  ministry  of  prayer 
and  utterance  of  God's  own  message.  Men  can- 
not well  do  both  tasks. 

Now,  we  are  going  to  consider  one  of  these 
so-called  secular  terms  to-day.  Heaven  help  us 
not  to  secularize  what  is  spiritual,  but  to  spirit- 
ualize what  is  secular.  "Conservation"  is  an 
admirable  word  as  long  as  it  keeps  human  blood 
running  through  its  syllables.  A  preacher's  lan- 
guage must  always  bleed  when  it  is  cut.  His 
words  must  always  be  living  words,  like  that 
other  Minister's,  who  said,  "The  words  that  I 
speak  unto  you,  they  are  spirit,  and  they  are 
life." 

Along  with  the  spiritualizing  of  secular  terms 
there  goes  an  enlargement  of  the  meaning  of 
familiar  ones.  Good  words  constantly  grow  in 
wealth  of  content  just  as  good  sentences  do.  In 
my  youth  I  learned  the  Apostles'  Creed,  and, 
as  a  youth,  said  often  the  noble  words  beginning, 
"I  believe  in  God  the  Father  Almighty."  I 
still  say  the  same  words,  and  have  said  them 

204 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  CONSERVATION 

round  the  world.  They  meant  something  in 
my  youth;  they  meant  vastly  more  when  they 
were  repeated  in  India  and  China  and  Japan 
with  their  numberless  gods;  they  mean  still 
more  as  life  enlarges  and  grows  richer  in  ex- 
perience. The  form  of  words  remains,  but  the 
meaning  of  living  words  grows  with  life's  own 
growth.  "Salvation"  is  such  a  word.  Once  it 
meant  saving  the  lost.  And  that  was  so  im- 
portant that  it  seemed  enough.  Anything  that 
would  set  the  angels  singing  for  joy  might  fairly 
be  considered  good.  When  older  men  here  en- 
tered this  ministry,  they  were  told  that  their 
chief  business  was  to  save  the  lost.  Sometimes 
they  were  told  that  this  was  their  only  business. 
My  own  first  sermon  was  on  the  text,  "For  the 
Son  of  man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that 
which  was  lost."  It  was  intended  to  set  the 
key  to  such  ministry  as  might  follow.  The 
sermon  was  full  of  visions  of  rescue  of  sinners — 
old  sinners,  hardened  sinners,  great  sinners;  and 
the  revival  was  the  method  most  in  my  mind, 
as  it  was  the  method  then  most  in  vogue.  The 
text  was  a  wholly  good  text.  I  could  use  it 
gladly  to-day,  but  I  could  not  use  the  sermon 
now.  It  was  only  partly  good.  Salvation  of 
the  lost  is  and  ever  was  in  Jesus's  mind  and 
heart.  Salvation  from  loss  was  equally  in  the 
purpose  of  his  life.    Salvation  of  the  saved  was 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

just  as  truly  an  ideal  of  his  ministry.  The  term 
"salvation"  has  grown.  We  see  as  we  did  not 
always  see  what  it  meant  in  the  other  ministry 
which  is  ever  our  pattern  and  inspiration.  Sal- 
vation of  the  lost — that  is  the  ministry  of  rescue 
of  which  we  have  already  spoken.  Salvation 
from  loss,  salvation  of  the  saved — that  is  the 
ministry  of  conservation.  Do  not  set  the  minis- 
tries over  against  one  another.  Do  not  choose  be- 
tween them.  The  complete  ministry  will  in- 
clude them  all  and  will  include  them  all  the  time 
and  in  every  place.  Blessed  is  the  ministry, 
blessed  is  the  church  whose  practices  and  ideals 
grow  with  the  growth  of  those  living  words. 
We  are  not  form-savers,  nor  method-savers,  nor 
institution-savers,  nor  even  truth-savers.  We 
are  ever  and  everywhere  life-savers,  the  savers 
of  all  life,  life  that  is  lost,  life  that  is  not  yet  lost, 
life  that  has  begun  to  be  saved.  Our  forms, 
our  methods,  our  institutions,  and  our  truth  are 
all  for  that. 

You  see  where  this  brings  us,  straight  up  to 
the  question  whether  you  are  going  to  be  pas- 
toral ministers  or  some  other  kind.  Are  you 
going  to  take  the  Good  Shepherd  as  your  model, 
clear  through  the  whole  spirit  and  practice  of 
his  life?  Are  the  sheep,  all  the  sheep,  to  be 
your  chief  concern.?  Are  you  willing  to-day  to 
take  the  Shepherd  story  in  Old  Testament  and 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  CONSERVATION 

New,  in  the  life  of  Jesus  in  particular,  and  let  it 
sink  and  soak  into  you  until  your  whole  life  is 
saturated  and  your  ideals  and  purposes  com- 
pletely controlled  by  it?  Forty  years  from  now 
you  will  wish  you  had.  To-day,  in  your  youth, 
with  the  love  of  study  in  your  hearts,  with 
other  visions  before  your  minds,  not  knowing 
sheep  very  well,  not  interested  in  lambs  at  all, 
being  a  shepherd  does  not  particularly  appeal  to 
you.  It  does  not  seem  to  have  anything  to  do 
with  a  lot  of  the  things  you  are  studying  and 
planning,  or  to  offer  any  proper  scope  for  your 
peculiar  abilities  or  real  outlet  for  the  rich  con- 
tents of  your  note  books.  And  there  is  no  telling 
where  it  may  lead  you.  You  may  even  come  to 
be  known,  not  as  a  college  preacher,  but  as  a 
children's  preacher.  Then,  of  course,  your  deg- 
radation and  humiliation  will  be  complete,  espe- 
cially if  you  have  two  or  more  degrees !  But  do 
not  worry  lest  your  great  abilities  should  be 
wasted  on  children.  Only  be  afraid  that  your 
false  pride  and  stupidity  may  prevent  your 
doing  a  mighty  work  among  them.  The 
preacher  or  teacher  who  can  keep  or  set  the 
feet  of  childhood  in  the  way  of  life  is  doing 
the  largest  work  being  done  in  the  world  to-day. 
The  earlier  states  of  education  are  the  most 
significant.  Head  masters  of  secondary  schools 
are  harder  to  find  than  university  presidents. 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

Do  you  intend,  then,  God  helping  you,  to  con- 
form your  Hfe  to  the  pastoral  pattern,  to  shape 
your  preaching  and  your  activities  to  pastoral 
ends?  If  so,  we  may  well  have  good  hope  of 
you;  if  not,  we  may  well  view  your  coming  to 
the  ministry  with  modified  pleasure.  If  you  are 
coming  with  something  of  the  consciousness  and 
purpose  of  Jesus  in  this  matter,  we  may  all  be 
glad,  he  and  the  whole  church.  What  was  good 
in  him  cannot  be  bad  in  us.  His  life  in  this 
aspect  of  it  was  also  both  an  event  and  a  prin- 
ciple. He  has  projected  into  history,  into  reli- 
gion, into  the  ministry  the  commanding,  allur- 
ing figure  of  the  Good  Shepherd.  No  other 
figure  has  appeared  worthy  to  replace  it,  or 
even  to  stand  beside  it.  To  see  this  figure 
clearly  is  a  thing  to  pray  for,  to  be  like  it  a 
thing  to  live  and  die  for.  One  shudders  to 
hear  a  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  spoken  of  as  a 
"prince  of  the  church."  That  note  does  not 
harmonize  with  the  rest. 

May  I  put  in  a  paragraph  here  by  way  of 
parenthesis.'^  At  the  beginning  I  expressed  my 
satisfaction  that  so  much  had  been  said  and  so 
well  said  upon  this  general  subject.  A  particular 
application  of  that  statement  lies  in  this:  My 
dear  friend,  the  Reverend  Charles  E.  Jefferson, 
has  made  a  study  of  the  "Minister  as  a  Shep- 
herd" which  is  so  noble,  so  true,  and  so  com- 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  CONSERVATION 

plete  as  to  leave  little  to  be  said,  but  much  to 
be  done.  And  as  a  vital  part  of  what  I  am 
now  trying  to  say  on  this  subject,  I  commend 
the  volume  and  its  teaching  to  your  immediate, 
your  serious,  and  your  lifelong  consideration. 

Now,  the  work  of  conservation  relates  directly 
and  especially  to  the  care  of  children  and  the 
care  of  converts  or  members  of  the  flock.  Let 
us  take  the  subject  of  children  first.  And  let 
us  not  get  entangled  with  the  question  as  an 
academic  or  a  theological  one.  We  shall  avail 
ourselves  both  of  the  psychology  and  the  theol- 
ogy of  child  life,  but  our  interest  is  the  religious 
interest,  the  living  interest  of  good  ministers  of 
Jesus  Christ  in  the  persons  called  children. 
Many  a  man  gets  a  correct  psychology  and  a 
correct  theology  of  child  life,  all  of  which  he 
declares  in  speech  and  print,  at  associations  and 
in  magazines,  but  never  gets  a  correct  relation 
to  children.  Certain  churches  have  fairly  cor- 
rect theories  and  altogether  unsatisfactory  prac- 
tices on  this  subject.  There  is  a  wide  chasm 
between  the  theory  and  the  practice  of  my  own 
church  in  its  relation  to  children.  In  that 
chasm  uncounted  thousands  of  children  have 
been  lost.  Our  theory,  wrought  out  in  the  fires 
of  fierce  theological  controversy,  makes  us 
proud  of  our  fathers  who  put  it  into  our  church 
laws.     One  can  face  the  world  with  this  state- 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

ment:  "We  hold  that  all  children,  by  virtue  of 
the  unconditional  benefits  of  the  atonement,  are 
members  of  the  kingdom  of  God  and  therefore 
graciously  entitled  to  baptism.  .  .  .  And  we  re- 
gard all  children  who  have  been  baptized  as 
placed  in  visible  covenant  relation  to  God  and 
as  preparatory  members  under  the  special  care 
and  supervision  of  the  church."  Related  to  this 
is  the  legislation  necessary  to  complete  it.  This 
is  our  theory.  We  hold  it  firmly  and  apply  it 
with  perfect  consistency  to  the  children  who 
die  young  enough,  but  our  practice  with  refer- 
ence to  children  who  live  has  been  the  weak 
spot  in  our  church  life,  as  it  has  been  in  the  life 
of  nearly  all  Protestant  churches.  Putting  a 
good  law  upon  the  books,  even  the  church 
books,  does  not  insure  its  observance  either  in 
church  or  state.  Laws  do  not  work  automati- 
cally. It  sometimes  seems  to  me  that  our 
fathers  had  not  the  courage  to  stand  straight 
up  in  practice  to  their  clear  convictions,  after 
winning  their  doctrinal  victory  for  the  religious 
status  and  life  of  childhood.  They  did  not 
seem  to  know  how  to  hold  together  in  practice 
two  great  living  truths  and  principles,  the  truth 
of  the  conversion  of  adult  life  and  the  conserva- 
tion of  child  life. 

And  in  spite  of  what  they  said,  in  spite  of 
what  Jesus  himself  said,  the  adult  type  of  reli- 

210 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  CONSERVATION 

gious  experience  and  life  became  dominant  even 
in  the  church's  thought  and  practice  toward  her 
children.  The  resulting  chasm  between  theory 
and  practice  has  been  and  is  the  tragedy  of 
Christendom.  Our  churches  are  organized  as 
adult  bodies,  with  incidental  reference  to  chil- 
dren. "The  great  blunder  of  our  churches  is 
the  blunder  of  'adultism.'  "  Our  church  ser- 
vices and  creedal  statements  are  made  for 
adults,  people  of  maturity.  Our  sermons  are 
for  "grown-ups,"  with  occasional  "little  ser- 
mons" to  children.  The  average  sermon  to 
children,  preached  by  a  man  who  does  not  like 
to  do  it  and  thinks  he  must,  may  be  described 
in  the  language  of  the  honest  Scotchwoman's 
verdict  on  her  own  photograph:  "It's  a  sad 
sight."  Men  are  afraid  to  get  the  reputation 
of  being  children's  preachers.  They  are  even 
careful  not  to  seem  to  be  getting  or  keeping 
children  in  large  numbers  in  the  church.  They 
would  rather  have  their  churches  known  as  the 
church  of  the  automobiles  than  the  church  of 
the  baby  carriages.  They  will  report  their  ac- 
cessions after  a  revival  or  a  retreat  or  at  the 
end  of  the  year,  adding  with  evident  pride  the 
words,  "Mostly  adults."  Adults  are  already 
somebody.  They  belong  in  Nicodemus's  class. 
He  and  they  have  to  be  born  again,  made  all 
over  from  above  before  they  could  even  see  the 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

kingdom  of  God.  That  is  the  kind  of  some- 
bodies they  are.  Of  course  they  may  add 
considerably  to  the  social  standing  or  the 
financial  strength  of  the  church,  and  that  is 
very  important.  Children  enrolled  are  in  a 
different  class.  They  are  not  yet  somebody. 
They  may  be  the  children  of  prominent  people 
and  worth  while  on  that  account,  but  it  will  be 
a  long  time  before  they  add  anything  to  the 
strength  or  standing  of  a  church.  Of  course 
that  other  Minister  said,  "Of  such  is  the  king- 
dom of  heaven."  He  did  not  tell  them  what  he 
told  Nicodemus,  the  adult.  And  a  child  does 
add  incalculably  to  the  wealth  and  social  stand- 
ing of  a  church  as  it  does  to  a  family.  Do  you 
remember  the  Essayist's  story  of  the  rich  man, 
the  enormously  rich  man,  whose  wealth  was 
being  spoken  of  in  tones  of  awe,  not  to  say 
reverence.'^  A  plain  soul,  with  the  eyes  of  his 
heart  enlightened,  punctured  the  whole  golden 
bubble  by  asking  one  question,  "How  many 
children  has  he?"  "None,"  was  the  answer,  as 
if  the  question  were  impertinent.  Then  said 
the  soul  that  knew,  "I  am  sorry  for  him,  for  he 
is  nothing  but  a  pauper." 

I  heard  of  a  church  that  was  characterized  as 
"rolling  in  wealth."  I  forget  how  many  mil- 
lionaires it  had  in  its  membership.  It  gives 
vast  sums  to  maintain  its   own  services  and 

212 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  CONSERVATION 

equally  as  much  for  the  work  of  the  world.  But 
it  is  an  adult  church.  It  has  no  children.  It 
would  not  know  what  to  do  with  them.  The 
only  children  it  has  are  in  the  mission  which 
the  church  maintains.  Not  a  minister  or  a 
missionary  has  come  from  that  church  within 
any  man's  memory.  O,  I  do  not  want  to  open 
any  wounds  or  reveal  any  poverty  that  ought 
to  be  kept  out  of  sight,  but  a  church  or  a  home 
without  children  is  sad  beyond  words.  It  takes 
more  than  four  feet  on  a  fender  to  make  a  fire- 
side. There  must  be  the  feet  of  children  on  the 
fender  even  in  the  house  of  God.  No  matter 
how  restless  the  feet  are  or  how  much  they  dis- 
turb the  fender.  A  table,  even  the  table  of  the 
Lord,  may  be  orderly  and  quiet,  but  it  is  not 
complete  unless  children  are  gathered  about  it. 
Why  have  we  been  so  swift  to  claim  God  as 
our  Father  and  Jesus  as  our  Elder  Brother,  and 
so  slow  to  base  church  life  on  the  family  ideal? 
Why  are  churches  so  largely  ecclesiastical,  so 
"churchly"  as  we  often  say,  when  we  want  to 
be  superior,  and  so  little  domestic?  Why  is  the 
house  of  God  our  heavenly  Father  so  unlike  the 
house  of  our  earthly  fathers?  Why,  indeed,  is 
it  so  much  easier  for  a  boy  or  girl  born  in  the 
church,  to  run  away,  to  get  out  of  it,  than  it  is 
for  any  boy  or  girl  to  run  away  from  home?  A 
whole  town  will  turn  out  to  search  for  a  kidnaped 

213 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

or  runaway  boy.  The  whole  country  was  inter- 
ested for  years  in  a  well-known  ease.  A  few 
hundred  or  a  few  thousand  cases  of  infantile 
paralysis  stir  the  nation,  as  they  should.  All 
the  resources  of  city,  State,  general  government, 
medical  associations,  and  special  foundations  are 
put  at  the  service  of  endangered  childhood.  And 
all  the  world  approves  these  efforts  at  human 
conservation.  Now,  look  at  the  habits  of  the 
churches  and  of  families,  even  religious  families, 
with  reference  to  the  children  God  has  given 
them.  Of  course  we  want  them  to  be  good,  but 
we  actually  seem  to  be  afraid  to  give  them  their 
divine  place  in  the  church.  They  will  not,  can- 
not understand  church  membership  or  all  that 
it  means.  They  do  not  understand  those  adult 
creeds.  We  worship  at  the  shrine  of  under- 
standing and  lose  our  children  while  we  do  it. 
If  it  is  not  well  to  take  them  into  church  mem- 
bership until  they  understand,  is  it  well  to  keep 
them  out.f^  They  would  better  be  in  than  out  in 
that  dangerous  period.  We  do  not  hesitate  to 
choose  for  them  in  other  matters,  like  education, 
but  with  a  positive  air  of  piety  we  insist  upon 
waiting  to  let  them  choose  for  themselves  in 
the  matter  of  religion.  We  declare  that  of  such 
is  the  kingdom  of  heaven  and  act  as  though 
of  such  were  the  kingdom  of  evil.  Even  bap- 
tism we  regard  in  many  cases  as  the  mere  giving 

214 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  CONSERVATION 

a  child  a  name,  and  treat  that  sacred  act  as  a 
social  event,  calling  for  new  clothes  and  the 
presence  of  friends.  Then  after  baptism  we  go 
on  with  our  adult  church  life  and  let  our  chil- 
dren drift  out  into  the  world,  to  be  brought  back 
in  small  percentage  by  a  special  effort  of  rescue. 
And  we  make  much  ado  and  give  ourselves 
large  praise  for  those  we  recover,  chloroforming 
ourselves  concerning  those  we  had  and  have 
lost.  "The  rebuke  that  comes  to  us  is  in  this, 
that  after  more  than  half  a  century  the  words 
of  Matthew  Simpson  are  yet  true:  'The  church 
by  its  neglect  of  childhood  loses  more  people  to 
the  kingdom  of  God  than  all  our  revivals  are 
able  to  bring  back.'  "  Not  a  single  one  of  our 
churches  dares  to  face  a  twenty-five-year  sur- 
vey, showing  what  has  become  of  the  children 
of  its  members,  the  children  of  its  Sunday 
school,  the  children  of  its  neighborhood,  and 
proper  influence  in  that  period.  "We  are  facing 
the  most  serious  situation  the  Christian  Church 
has  ever  faced.  We  are  losing  our  own  young 
people.  We  cannot  make  good  our  claim  to 
saving  to  church  membership  and  Christian  use- 
fulness more  than  twenty  to  twenty-five  out  of 
every  hundred  scholars  who  enter  our  Sunday 
schools.  This  is  a  far  more  serious  matter  than 
any  failure  to  evangelize  outside  sinners.  .  .  . 
[In  this]  it  has  come  to  pass  that  not  only  the 

215 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

church  but  the  world  is  aware  of  the  fact  that 
Christian  truth  and  Christian  faith  as  demon- 
strated by  their  ablest  exponents  are  not  avail- 
ing in  the  evangelization  of  their  own."  "The 
elementary  superintendent  of  an  Eastern  city 
school  recently  said  that  during  ten  years  more 
boys  had  been  graduated  from  the  primary  de- 
partment, of  which  she  was  superintendent,  than 
there  were  members  in  the  entire  school  at  the 
end  of  the  ten-year  period."  Of  course  certain 
losses  are  not  preventable  in  this  imperfect 
world,  but  the  prevention  of  those  that  are 
preventable  for  two  decades  would  change  the 
face  of  the  Protestant  world.  The  leakages  that 
could  have  been  avoided  and  prevented  are 
vastly  in  excess  of  the  recoveries  of  which  we 
properly  make  so  much. 

Of  course  these  losses  are  usually  gradual,  one 
lamb  at  a  time  slipping  out  of  our  flock.  And 
some  of  the  lambs  were  not  very  promising 
anyhow;  they  were  feeble  and  small,  their  par- 
ents not  worth  much  for  wool  or  anything  else. 
If,  however,  we  lost  them  all  at  once,  as  children 
die  in  an  epidemic  or  sheep  get  killed  when 
wolves  or  dogs  or  thieves  get  in  and  destroy 
or  steal  half  a  flock  in  a  night,  we  would  get 
excited  and  make  a  tremendous  fuss  about  it. 
Unless  the  thing  goes  with  a  crash  it  does  not 
make  any  deep  impression  on  us.    One  person 

216 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  CONSERVATION 

killed  in  a  railroad  accident  gets  hardly  a  line 
in  the  papers.  It  takes  something  overwhelming 
to  startle  our  dulled  sensibilities  and  stir  us  to 
action.  Gradualness  in  this  matter  should  not 
blind  us  to  the  fatality  in  the  case.  Why  are 
men  so  proud  of  gradual,  steady  growth,  and  so 
complacent  in  the  face  of  gradual,  steady  loss.f^ 
We  might  as  well  face  the  fact  that  we  can 
never  win  the  world  to  Christ,  the  small  world 
of  a  parish  or  the  large  parish  of  the  world,  by 
our  present  method.  'Tf  we  do  not  win  from 
the  world,  it  is  deplorable;  but  if  we  do  not 
hold  our  own,  it  is  fatal."  Maybe  we  have 
given  up  expecting  to  win  the  world.  Maybe 
Christ  himself  did  not  look  for  or  desire  nu- 
merical supremacy,  but  only  a  spiritual  su- 
premacy. Maybe  he  and  we  are  succeeding 
satisfactorily  in  establishing  his  kingdom  when 
we  are  permeating  the  areas  of  life  around  us 
with  a  Christian  influence.  Maybe  our  com- 
placency is  justified,  but  it  is  hard  to  see  how. 
On  any  basis,  we  are  not  now  winning  the  big 
world  or  the  little  one  to  him.  Our  successes, 
numerical  and  spiritual,  must  not  blind  us  to 
our  paralyzing  failures  both  numerical  and 
spiritual.  If  this  is  the  best  the  Christian  Church 
can  do,  in  town  or  world,  it  is  not  a  thing  to 
boast  of.  Nor  is  it  the  best  the  church  can  do. 
The  "blight  of  ordinariness"  must  not  be  per- 

217 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

mitted  to  fall  or  remain  upon  our  expectations 
or  achievements  whether  in  the  matter  of  num- 
bers or  of  influence.  The  church  can  do  better, 
almost  infinitely  better,  in  the  matter  of  in- 
fluence. It  can  permeate  life  with  the  Holy 
Spirit  of  God  to  a  degree  not  yet  dreamed  of 
even  in  our  Christian  philosophy.  It  can  do 
better,  vastly  better,  in  the  way  of  the  rescue 
of  those  who  have  wandered  away.  It  can  do 
this  without  the  help  of  professional  rescuers  if 
it  v/ill.  But  its  possible  achievements  with  the 
youth  of  town  and  world  ought  to  send  a  thrill 
throughout  ministry  and  laity.  Here  is  our 
largest  and  most  fruitful  opportunity.  Here  we 
can  win  our  largest  success  both  in  the  way  of 
numbers  and  in  the  way  of  influence  and  spirit- 
ual permeation.  What  are  the  commonplace 
facts  in  the  case.^^  The  scientists  have  given 
them  to  us.  They  have  prepared  impressive 
tables  and  charts  to  make  the  story  vivid  and 
striking.  Seven  eighths  of  the  people  who  pre- 
tend to  be  Christians  in  the  world  made  their 
confession  in  youth.  The  number  of  those  who 
enter  the  Christian  life  after  reaching  the  age  of 
thirty  is  so  small  that  it  can  hardly  be  reckoned 
or  illustrated.  That  is  not  the  whole  story,  nor 
the  sorry  part  of  the  story.  Youth  is  also  the 
period  of  loss.  The  shepherd  who  forgets  the 
lambs  he  lost  while  rejoicing  in  those  he  has 

218 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  CONSERVATION 

raised  is  not  a  good  shepherd.  We  are  only  now 
slowly  learning  how  to  build  sheepfolds  so  as  to 
prevent  the  loss  of  young  sheep,  or  so  as  to  feed 
them  with  food  convenient  for  them.  We  have 
built  our  folds  for  adult  sheep,  as  we  think  of 
them  when  we  speak  of  our  flock.  We  feed  the 
whole  flock  with  food  convenient  for  those  old 
sheep,  or  food  that  is  convenient  for  us.  A 
friend  of  mine  owned  a  noble  great  Dane  dog. 
This  dog  would  not  eat  baked  beans.  The 
Negro  man  in  charge  of  the  house  complained  of 
it  very  bitterly.  He  said,  exactly  as  if  he  had 
been  a  preacher  speaking  of  his  sermons:  "I  like 
them;  he  ought  to  like  them.  They  are  good 
enough  for  me,  they  are  good  enough  for  him." 
Of  course  that  would  seem  to  end  the  argument. 
*T  like  these  sermons;  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren ought  to  like  them.  They  are  good  enough 
for  me,  they  are  good  enough  for  them."  But 
even  for  a  great  Dane  dog  one  must  be  some- 
thing of  a  dietitian.  Now,  let  us  get  back  to  our 
figure  again,  and  recall  that  interview  between 
Jesus  and  Simon,  an  interview  that  should  be 
read  on  the  day  of  your  ordination.  "Simon, 
Son  of  John,  do  you  love  me,  more  than  these?" 
"Yea,  Lord,  thou  knowest  that  I  love  thee. 
That  is  why  I  am  being  ordained.  It  is  easy  to 
love  thee.  I  shall  do  it  to  the  end.  I  shall 
preach  great  sermons  about  thee,  and  tell  the 

219 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

story  of  the  matchless  Hfe  with  joy."  "Simon, 
feed  my  lambs.  Look  after  the  Junior  League, 
the  Boy  Scouts,  the  primary  department,  com- 
mit the  Cradle  Roll  to  memory,  feed  the  youth, 
guard  them,  protect  them.  They  must  be  saved 
from  the  dangers  of  their  youth,  saved  from 
weakness,  saved  from  ignorance  and  inexperi- 
ence; saved  from  their  own  weak  wills,  saved 
from  their  willfulness;  saved  from  the  thieves, 
the  robbers,  the  wolves,  the  dogs,  the  diseases 
that  destroy  childhood.  Simon,  before  I  put 
you  in  charge  of  this  flock,  before  you  are 
ordained,  do  you  solemnly  consecrate  yourself 
to  the  faithful  care  of  the  lambs  committed  to 
your  care.f^  It  will  be  a  long  task — twenty  years 
of  patience  and  love  and  fidelity  before  the  least 
one  reaches  manhood.  It  will  be  constant  and 
trying,  it  will  be  obscure.  Nobody  will  see  what 
you  are  doing  except  the  Good  Shepherd  him- 
self. They  will  not  understand  all  you  say, 
or  the  nature  of  membership  in  the  flock  of 
Christ;  they  may  be  foolish  and  vexatious,  they 
may  not  like  to  be  brought  up  in  the  nurture  of 
the  Lord.  But,  Simon,  this  is  the  work  of  a 
shepherd,  this  the  greatest  opportunity  for  suc- 
cess, near  and  far.  Shall  I  say  it.^  I  ordain  and 
set  thee  apart  for  this  task.  I  cannot  be  every- 
where. This  is  the  test  of  your  love  for  me. 
Will  you  meet  it?"    "Of  such  is  the  kingdom  of 

220 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  CONSERVATION 

heaven."  They  are  born  into  it  by  the  grace  of 
Christ.  Never  let  them  get  away.  A  clergy- 
man one  day  said  to  his  daughter,  aged  ten: 
"Daughter,  do  you  not  think  it  is  about  time 
for  you  to  unite  with  the  church?"  And  with 
wonder  in  expression  and  tone  she  instantly  re- 
plied, "When  did  I  get  out  of  the  church?"  Her 
father  spent  the  rest  of  the  day  in  explanation 
and  profitable  meditation  and  never  made  that 
blunder  again. 

There  is  no  use  to  get  mixed  up  with  foolish 
questions  about  the  matter.  Children  are  in 
the  Kingdom,  not  by  virtue  of  their  childhood 
or  their  accomplished  sainthood,  but  by  virtue 
of  Christ's  work  for  them,  by  virtue  of  the  un- 
conditional benefits  of  the  atonement.  They  are 
not  adults  either  in  their  understanding,  their 
habits,  or  their  tj^e  of  religious  life.  They 
have  the  faults  as  well  as  the  virtues  of  their 
age.  They  have  not  achieved  perfection.  They 
are  becoming,  not  yet  become.  "For  several 
years  a  boy  in  a  church  may  be  a  burden  rather 
than  a  carrier  of  burdens."  He  may  not  add 
much  to  the  official  counsels  or  many  dollars  to 
the  treasury.  The  law  of  immediate  returns 
does  not  apply  here,  but  neither  does  the  law 
of  diminishing  returns. 

I  am  almost  ashamed  to  be  saying  all  this, 
which  you  may  think  utterly  commonplace,  and 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

beneath  the  level  of  the  purpose  of  this  founda- 
tion and  this  place,  but  I  remember  that  in 
this  region  Horace  Bushnell  first  spoke  the 
immortal  words  now  known  as  the  volume  on 
"Christian  Nurture,"  and  in  that  recollection  I 
declare  again  that  the  conservation  of  the 
whole  world's  youth  ofiPers  the  Church  of  Christ 
its  fairest,  possibly  its  only,  chance  to  become 
the  universal  and  triumphant  kingdom  of  Christ. 
I  am  not  thinking  now  exclusively  or  chiefly  of 
the  few  children  of  a  small  parish,  or  the  chil- 
dren of  Christian  parents.  The  children  of  the 
world,  the  whole  world,  are  in  my  mind  now.  I 
saw  an  old  man,  a  famous  evangelist,  lift  before 
an  audience  a  small  African  girl  whom  he  had 
brought  from  Africa  and  heard  him  say :  "There 
are  no  heathen  children.  They  become  heathen, 
they  are  not  born  heathen."  This,  then,  is  our 
opportunity  for  local  and  world  redemption. 
The  stately  old  words  rise  again  and  walk  be- 
fore us  in  truth  and  power:  "We  hold  that  all 
children,  not  ours  only,  but  also  the  children  of 
the  whole  world,  by  virtue  of  the  unconditional 
benefits  of  atonement,  are  members  of  the  king- 
dom of  God."  And  with  these  words  in  our  ears 
let  us  firmly  purpose  and  highly  resolve  that 
through  our  whole  ministry,  long  or  short,  in 
city  or  town  or  country,  at  home  or  abroad,  we 
will  guard  this  portion  of  the  Good  Shepherd's 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  CONSERVATION 

flock,  give  them  at  life's  beginning  the  direction 
they  should  keep  to  life's  end,  protecting  and 
guiding  them  through  perilous  years  in  that 
Good  Shepherd's  name  and  spirit,  even  as  he 
has  commanded  us  to  do. 

Really,  the  only  way  to  retain  our  courage 
and  faith  about  the  Kingdom  is  to  remember 
that  every  generation  is  new.  Our  progress  to- 
ward establishing  the  Kingdom  is  so  slow  that 
our  faith  is  perplexed  and  our  vision  disturbed. 
Many  men  are  simply  working  ahead,  doing 
their  best,  trying  to  hope,  but  not  seeing  any 
clear  path  ahead  of  them.  But  we  can  recreate 
courage,  hope,  and  faith  by  remembering  that 
every  generation  is  new.  Maybe  there  will 
come  a  time  when  we  shall  leap  over  the  cen- 
turies with  their  slow  and  perplexing  progress 
and  do  in  one  generation  and  for  one  generation 
the  work  of  ages.  We  might,  by  God's  grace, 
change  the  face  of  the  world  and  the  whole  look 
of  the  Kingdom  by  the  right  kind  of  work  with 
one  new  generation.  Why  should  the  genera- 
tions as  they  go  determine  what  the  generations 
shall  be?  Why  not  give  the  kingdom  of  Christ  a 
fair,  full  chance  at  each  new  generation  as  it 
comes? 

The  second  feature  of  the  ministry  of  con- 
servation relates  to  the  care  of  persons  and 
values  already  in  the  Kingdom.    Three  things 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

we  have  mentioned,  the  salvation  of  the  lost,  or 
the  ministry  of  rescue;  salvation  from  loss,  or 
the  ministry  to  childhood;  salvation  of  the 
saved,  or  the  ministry  of  cultivation.  These 
last  two  both  belong  to  the  ministry  of  con- 
servation. Of  course  we  must  not  set  these 
over  against  one  another  as  the  manner  of  too 
many  is.  Some  ministers  are  strong  in  the 
work  of  rescue  and  utterly  reckless  in  the  care 
of  souls,  others  weak  in  rescue  and  strong  on 
training  and  upbuilding.  You  are  not  meaning 
to  be  specialists.  You  are  intending  to  be  gen- 
eral practitioners,  after  the  fashion  of  an  old- 
time  family  doctor.  You  will  call  in  specialists 
when  you  need  them;  you  will  organize  our 
churches  so  as  to  do  all  that  needs  to  be  done 
by  a  church  for  human  life,  but  nothing  human 
is  going  to  be  foreign  or  unknown  or  uninter- 
esting to  you.  You  are  going  to  live  in  "the 
vein  of  comprehensiveness"  and  not  under  the 
elective  system.  You  will  emphasize  the  unity 
of  life,  the  unity  of  personal  life  and  the  unity 
of  church  life,  the  unity  of  sermon  and  service, 
of  great  preaching  and  supreme  pastoral  care. 
Neither  reaches  its  height  by  itself.  The  Irish 
are  artists  in  expression.  Anybody  can  say  that 
"misfortunes  never  come  singly,"  but  it  takes 
an  artist  to  say  that  "single  misfortunes  never 
come  alone,"  and  that  "solitary  virtues  do  not 

224 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  CONSERVATION 

thrive  by  themselves."  The  solitary  virtue  of 
preaching  does  not  thrive  apart  from  the  virtue  of 
human  interest.  Oratory  of  a  sort  may  last  a 
long  time,  and  please  many,  but  oratory,  even 
religious  oratory  in  a  pulpit,  is  not  preaching. 
A  pulpit  orator  is  rather  a  fearsome  thing.  You 
must  speak  the  truth,  you  must  speak  it  in  love, 
in  love  for  the  truth  you  speak,  but  you  must 
speak  it  in  public  and  private  chiefly  in  love 
for  the  persons  to  whom  you  speak  it.  Every- 
thing exists  for  the  welfare  of  life,  not  for  the 
display  of  power.  And  you  must  hold  all  your 
truth  together.  "A  truth  that  will  not  make 
saints  will  not  save  sinners."  The  saved  life  is 
what  we  are  after  with  all  fervor  and  zeal. 

Now,  the  care  of  the  saints,  especially  the 
same  set  of  saints,  through  a  long  period  is  not 
an  easy  thing.  Saints  are  in  the  making,  as  a 
rule,  and  the  process  of  becoming  is  not  always 
free  from  growing  pains  to  the  saints  themselves 
and  keen  anxieties  to  their  physician  and  shep- 
herd. It  takes  a  lot  of  qualities  to  make  a  true 
shepherd.  Heaven  save  the  flock  when  the 
shepherd  is  a  muttonhead.  Sheep  of  all  sorts 
and  ages  are  rather  difficult.  Some  are  foolish 
and  some  are  bumptious.  Some  never  learn 
anything  at  all  and  have  to  be  told  over  and 
over  the  same  thing.  And  some  are  not  good 
for  much.    They  are  too  old  and  thin  for  mutton 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

and  do  not  produce  much  wool.  Some  are 
always  running  away,  leading  others  with  them, 
hunting  other  pastures  or  just  drifting  without 
intention.  I  must  be  fair  with  you,  my  brethren, 
and  say  that  the  steady  care  of  a  flock  will  try 
your  patience,  test  your  abilities,  and  often  seem 
to  exhaust  the  very  grace  of  God  within  you.  I 
must  be  perfectly  fair  and  say  also  that  if  you 
can  do  this  with  patience,  with  skill,  and  with 
constantly  growing  grace  of  spirit,  you  will  find 
yourself  walking  in  holy  companionship  with 
that  other  Minister  in  the  ministry  that  endures 
for  you  both.  And  it  will  be  given  to  you  as  to 
him  to  come  at  last  to  the  fold,  bringing  your 
sheep  with  you.  Like  a  faithful  physician  you 
will  grow  "sick  of  sickness,  mortally  tired  of 
mortality."  Your  people  will  wear  you  out,  but 
it  will  be  worth  while  to  be  worn  out  for  them. 
Nothing  else  will  be.  Of  course  I  am  not  speak- 
ing of  that  so-called  pastoral  activity  which 
means  so  little  and  is  so  hateful  to  a  real  man, 
the  mere  "peddling  civility  around  a  parish," 
but  of  that  "daily,  nightly  and  eternal"  care  of 
souls,  that  unceasing  battle  with  the  wild 
beasts  that  destroy  life.  Such  care  will  break 
into  your  hours  of  meditation,  into  the  sacred 
forenoon  when  you  are  reading  and  writing; 
but  a  study  whose  windows  are  not  forever  open 
to  the  echoes  of  human  footfalls  and  the  cry  of 

226 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  CONSERVATION 

human  need  is  no  proper  study  for  a  minister 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Right  in  the  midst  of  your 
sermon  preparation  you  will  hear  that  one  of 
your  men,  a  convert  who  had  been  a  drunkard, 
has  fallen  again,  at  the  club  or  in  a  saloon,  and 
your  heart  will  go  sick  within  you.  This  is  the 
third  time  in  three  years  or  less.  Is  it  any  use? 
How  long  and  how  often  shall  you  try  to  hold 
him  up.f^  Seven  times .^^  Yes,  seventy  times 
seven.  You  still  have  many  times  to  go  before 
you  dare  give  it  up.  Then  out,  with  faith,  with 
love,  with  courage,  with  hope,  after  him,  con- 
sidering yourself  also,  restoring  him  in  meekness 
and  love.  Virtue  will  go  out  of  you  before  the 
struggle  is  over.  Possibly  it  will  never  be  over. 
Then  when  you  have  him  in  your  fold  again, 
clothed  and  in  his  right  mind,  go  out  like  a 
knight  or  a  crusader  to  wipe  from  the  very 
earth  those  agencies  that  destroy  men,  until 
there  shall  be  none  to  hurt  or  destroy  in  all  God's 
holy  mountain,  until  there  shall  be  neither  sa- 
loon nor  club  where  men  can  be  ruined.  The 
loss  of  a  patient  almost  sends  a  physician  to 
bed.  The  loss  of  a  member,  big  or  little,  strong 
or  weak,  old  or  young,  ought  to  bring  grief  to  a 
pastor's  heart,  that  only  the  sense  of  absolute 
fidelity  could  heal. 

I  would  make  it  formally  easy  to  get  into  the 
church  of  the  Good  Shepherd  and  almost  im- 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

possible  to  get  out.  The  entrance  gates  to  this 
fold  should  be  on  every  side  of  it  and  should 
stand  open  day  and  night.  At  every  service,  by 
every  means,  people  should  be  invited  and  per- 
suaded to  come  in.  And  the  formal  barriers 
should  be  low  and  few.  Do  not  fling  across  the 
entrance  extreme  obstacles,  doctrinal  or  other- 
wise. "The  only  condition  required  of  those 
who  seek  admission  to  these  societies  is  a  desire 
to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come  and  to  be  saved 
from  their  sins."  So  said  John  Wesley  about 
his  first  societies.  But  a  good  deal  more  than 
that  is  now  required  for  admission  to  John 
Wesley's  church  and  all  others.  The  invitation 
to  the  holy  communion  is  just  as  good  or  better: 
"Wherefore  ye  that  do  truly  and  earnestly  re- 
pent of  your  sins,  and  are  in  love  and  charity 
with  your  neighbors,  and  intend  to  lead  a  new 
life,  following  the  commandments  of  God  and 
walking  from  henceforth  in  his  holy  ways,  draw 
near  with  faith  and  take  this  holy  sacrament  to 
your  comfort;  and,  devoutly  kneeling,  make 
your  humble  confession  to  Almighty  God." 
That  invitation  meets  both  of  the  proper  con- 
ditions, the  condition  of  formal  simplicity  and 
the  condition  of  spiritual  challenge.  The  stan- 
dards are  rational,  the  challenge  high  and  com- 
manding. This  invites  men  as  they  are  to  be 
something  worth  being.     These  notes  are  not 

228 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  CONSERVATION 

artificial  but  vibrant  with  life,  life  on  high 
levels.  Many  church  buildings  are  now  open 
every  day,  as  they  should  be,  but  the  doors  to 
church  membership  open  only  once  in  three 
months  or  twice  a  year.  The  doors  that  swing 
in  ought  to  be  open  all  the  time,  and  the  doors 
that  swing  out  hard  to  find  and  mostly  closed 
when  found.  The  most  conspicuous  things  in 
many  modern  buildings,  churches  and  others,  are 
the  "exits,"  the  places  to  get  out.  It  ought  to  be 
harder  to  get  away  from  Christ's  flock  than  to 
lose  one's  family  relation  or  citizenship  in  the 
State.  The  spirit  of  pastor  and  membership 
surrounding  another  member  ought  to  be  so 
Christlike,  so  constant,  so  unwearying,  that  a 
man  or  woman  could  not  escape  it,  even  though 
they  flee  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth. 
Why  is  this  attitude  so  good  in  God  and  so  poor 
in  his  church  .f^  Why  do  so  many  officials  have 
such  keen  interest  in  pruning  the  church  records, 
cutting  off  members,  and  so  little  care  to  bind  up 
bruised,  twisted,  and  broken  branches .^^ 

This  conservation  involves,  also,  the  creation 
of  conditions  favorable  for  life.  There  is  time 
only  for  a  word  on  this.  Only  a  word  is  needed. 
There  are  two  sets  of  forces  in  every  community : 
those  that  hurt  and  those  that  help;  those  that 
destroy  and  those  that  build  up;  those  that 
make  for  death  and  those  that  make  for  life. 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

The  ministry  of  conservation  means  more  than 
simply  the  rescue  of  men  and  women  from  evil 
while  all  the  forces  of  evil  are  left  undisturbed 
to  do  their  deadly  work.  The  rescue  of  an  occa- 
sional runaway  slave  had  its  attractions,  but 
the  slave  was  not  safe  until  the  institution  was 
destroyed.  The  conversion  of  an  occasional 
drunkard  is  good,  even  thrilling,  but  the  insti- 
tution that  makes  drunkards  has  no  place  on  the 
earth,  in  the  sun,  or  anywhere  else.  The  forces 
of  good  must  be  established  and  fostered,  the 
forces  of  evil  destroyed,  root  and  branch,  until 
in  every  place  it  is  made  hard  to  go  wrong  and 
easy  to  go  right.  Lead  us  not  into  temptation, 
"but  deliver  us  from  evil." 

Turn  now  briefly  to  two  or  three  pages  in  that 
other  Minister's  life  and  ministry.  Before  him 
the  disciples  put  that  natural,  ugly  human 
question  of  relative  greatness,  thrusting  into  the 
Kingdom  early  what  persists  to  this  day,  estab- 
lishing grades  and  ranks  in  the  ministry  of  the 
Nazarene.  And  in  spite  of  what  he  said,  some 
are  called  Master  and  some  Doctor  and  some 
exercise  lordship  or,  what  is  worse,  make  a 
condescending  show  of  brother liness.  When 
they  asked  him  about  relative  greatness  in  the 
Kingdom,  he  called  a  little  child  and  set  him  in 
the  midst  of  them  and  said:  "Verily  I  say  unto 
you,  Except  ye  be  converted,  and  become  as 

230 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  CONSERVATION 

little  children,  ye  shall  not  enter  into  the  king- 
dom of  heaven.  Whosoever  therefore  shall 
humble  himself  as  this  little  child,  the  same  is 
greatest  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  And  whoso 
shall  receive  one  such  little  child  in  my  name 
receiveth  me:  but  whoso  shall  offend  one  of 
these  little  ones  which  believe  in  me  it  were 
better  for  him  that  a  millstone  were  hanged 
about  his  neck,  and  that  he  were  drowned  in 
the  depth  of  the  sea."  "Even  so  it  is  not  the 
will  of  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven, 
that  one  of  these  little  ones  should  perish" 
(Matt.  18.  3-6,  14).  Or  get  near  enough 
to  hear  him  as  the  end  draws  near  while  he 
pours  out  his  soul  to  his  Father.  The  years 
stretch  back  to  the  day  he  was  found  in 
the  temple  and  said  he  must  be  about  his 
Father's  business.  What  years  they  have  been 
for  him  and  for  all  other  ministers.  One  won- 
ders that  one  Person  could  have  stood  the  strain 
of  them.  How  was  he  able  to  say  what  he  said, 
do  what  he  did,  endure  what  he  endured  .^^  How 
did  he  live  through  the  everlasting  contact  with 
sickness,  poverty,  sin,  selfishness,  and  every  other 
thing  that  drained  his  nerves  of  strength  and  his 
heart  of  hope.^  If  any  modern  minister  is  in- 
clined to  pity  himself,  to  think  he  is  overworked, 
that  he  has  a  hard  place  and  a  tough  time;  that 
his  lines  have  fallen  in  unpleasant  places  and 

231 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

that  more  favored  brethren  have  the  goodly 
pastoral  heritages;  that  his  field  is  unpromising, 
his  people  unattractive  and  unhopeful,  his  re- 
wards few  and  his  pay  small,  let  him  compare 
any  three  years  of  his  ministry  with  the  three 
years  of  that  other  ministry  and  be  humbled  in 
his  own  eyes  and  before  God.  For  that  other 
ministry,  let  us  always  remember,  was  both  an 
event  and  a  principle,  in  all  that  made  it  what 
it  was.  Many  sentences  arrest  you  as  you 
overhear  him  in  that  final  majestic  prayer. 
Nothing  like  all  this  was  ever  said  by  any 
other  person  on  any  night  in  history.  But  there 
in  the  midst  of  it  is  a  single  touch  which  sets  our 
hearts  hammering  almost  intolerably.  We  are 
thinking  of  the  ministry  of  conservation,  as  ap- 
plied to  ourselves.  Listen  to  him  and  imagine 
his  feelings  as  he  says  it,  imagine  your  own  if 
you  could  say  it,  at  the  end  of  pastorate  or  of 
life:  "While  I  was  with  them  I  kept  them  in  thy 
name,  those  which  thou  hast  given  me;. and  I 
guarded  them,  and  not  one  of  them  perished." 
There  was  one  exception.  The  impossible  is  the 
impossible,  but  he  had  tried  even  that.  He 
would  have  said  these  words  humbly  and  grate- 
fully, but  the  next  words  must  have  come  with 
a  sob:  "Not  one  of  them  perished,"  may  God  be 
thanked,  "but  the  son  of  perdition."  "Heaven 
help  me,  I  did  my  best,  but  he  was  impossible." 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  CONSERVATION 

For  him  and  for  iis  this  Hfe  has  nothing  better 
to  offer  than  the  winning  and  holding  of  persons 
in  the  holy  Name.  For  him  and  for  us  life  has 
nothing  more  tragic  and  bitter  than  the  loss  of 
any,  even  those  who  will  not  be  saved. 

His  ministry  was  all  of  one  piece.  These 
terms  we  have  used  from  day  to  day  to  charac- 
terize it  are  not  mutually  exclusive  or  unrelated, 
disconnected  terms.  His  ministry  was  a  perfect 
unity,  a  thing  like  the  robe  without  seams.  Not 
one  of  these  qualities  can  be  taken  from  it 
without  tearing  its  very  fabric.  You  see  it 
in  its  wholeness  and  completeness  and  rejoice 
that  such  a  ministry  was  ever  known  on  our 
earth.  You  want  to  get  into  the  secret,  the 
open  secret  of  such  a  ministry,  that  it  may 
continue  among  men.  How  could  he  say  that 
he  had  guarded  and  kept  them  all  and  only  lost 
one?  Go  on  listening  while  he  speaks,  for  he 
is  talking  of  his  ministry  in  this  prayer.  There 
are  no  greater  depths  than  these.  This  is  not 
professional  nor  formal.  These  are  not  mechani- 
cal rules  for  success,  they  are  the  personal  con- 
ditions of  a  ministry  complete  in  him.  Hear  him 
then:  "For  their  sakes  I  sanctify  myself,  that 
they  also  might  be  sanctified  through  the 
truth."  Blessed  is  the  flock  whose  shepherd 
keeps  his  pronouns  straight.  The  Good  Shep- 
herd did  it,  as  you  see.     "For  their  sakes,  not 

£S3 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

my  own,"  he  says,  *T  make  myself  fit  and  I 
offer  myself  up."  It  is  all  of  a  piece.  "I  must 
be  about  my  Father's  business."  "I  consecrate 
myself."  "I  kept  and  guarded  them."  "Not 
one  of  them  is  lost."  Shortly  he  will  say,  "I 
have  finished  the  work  thou  gavest  me  to  do." 
Need  I  go  on.^  Need  I  explain.'^  Here  at  the 
last,  as  at  the  first,  he  stands  saying,  "I  am  the 
Door."  "I  am  the  Good  Shepherd."  "I  know 
my  sheep  and  am  known  of  mine.  I  call  them 
all  by  their  names."  *T  lay  down  my  life  for 
them."  "I  lay  it  down  of  myself."  "No  man 
taketh  it  from  me."  Will  you  stand  with  him, 
to-day,  to-morrow  and  to  the  end? 


284 


LECTURE  VII 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  COOPERATION 

'We  are  workers  together  ....  and  members 
one  of  another." 


LECTURE  VII 
THE  MINISTRY  OF  COOPERATION 

Our  study  of  the  ministry  has  led  us  badly 
astray  unless  it  has  brought  us  to  a  firm  and 
glowing  conviction  of  the  richness  and  manifold- 
ness  of  the  ministry  of  Jesus  Christ  and  of  our 
own  as  based  upon  his.  Of  course  this  cannot 
be  so  apparent  to  you  now  as  it  will  be  as  your 
life  and  experience  unfold  through  the  years. 
And  that  ministry  has  surely  gone  wrong  which 
does  not  look  richer  and  nobler  to  a  man  at 
sixty  than  it  did  to  the  same  man  at  thirty. 
The  deeper  we  get  into  the  ministry  of  Jesus 
the  fuller  that  ministry  is  seen  to  be.  One 
wonders  what  his  ministry  would  have  become 
if  he  had  had  forty  years  of  it  instead  of  three. 
It  was  a  ministry  and  a  life  of  simplicity,  but 
simplicity  does  not  mean  absence  of  qualities, 
it  means  for  us,  as  for  him,  harmony  and  balance 
of  qualities  under  a  dominant  note.  Forty  years 
from  now  I  trust  you  may  remember  what  an 
older  brother  says  to-day,  and  know  it  to  be 
true  in  the  spiritual,  intellectual,  personal  wealth 
of  the  life  to  which  you  have  then  come. 

We  have  used  a  half  dozen  words  up  to  now. 

237 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

No  one  of  these  words  can  stand  alone.  They 
are  all  necessary  to  characterize  the  kind  of  min- 
istry we  are  thinking  of.  Do  not  choose  be- 
tween them,  nor  set  them  over  against  one 
another.  If  all  these  qualities  be  in  you  and 
abound,  they  will  make  you  to  be  neither  bar- 
ren nor  unfruitful.  We  take  a  new  term  to-day. 
It  must  be  vital  in  itself  and  must  fit  all  the 
others.  Especially  must  the  term  "coopera- 
tion" harmonize  with  the  other  terms.  It  can- 
not possibly  stand  alone. 

Remember  that  definitions  do  not  help  much, 
when  the  thing  defined  is  so  full  of  life  that  it  is 
always  breaking  through  and  overflowing  the 
words  with  which  we  define  it.  We  must  de- 
scribe rather  than  define.  Cooperation  must 
mean  first  of  all  that  a  man's  own  personal 
qualities  work  together  in  harmony.  This  does 
not  always  happen.  Men  are  sometimes  de- 
stroyed by  an  inner  warfare.  In  life's  long  and 
supreme  issues  their  judgment  or  their  thinking 
forever  fights  their  feelings  or  their  wills.  They 
cannot  get  the  cooperation  of  their  own  quali- 
ties. Nothing  in  biography  is  much  more  tragic 
than  the  story  of  those  lives,  often  great  lives, 
which  are  destroyed  or  fail  to  come  to  their 
highest  because  of  this  internal  and  ruinous 
conflict.  It  has  been  said  of  an  eminent  Eng- 
lish statesman  of  our  own  day:  "There  is  no 

238 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  COOPERATION 

story  of  our  time  so  full  of  significance — a  story 
of  broken  purposes,  of  great  powers  diverted 
from  their  true  end,  of  a  tyrannic  will  at  war 
with  natural  sympathies.  It  is  a  tale  for  tears." 
Being  at  peace  within  does  not  mean  being  in  a 
state  of  repose,  but  in  a  state  of  such  harmony 
that  one  may  always  throw  his  total  personality 
into  the  total  task  or  the  immediate  duty  of  his 
life.  Many  men  cannot,  do  not  do  it,  and  do 
not  even  see  the  necessity  of  it.  Cooperation  is 
always  an  external  thing  with  them,  whereas  it 
is  primarily  an  internal  condition  and  quality. 
An  earlier  Yale  lecturer  put  it  thus  wittily  and 
pithily:  "A  man  to  do  perfectly  well  must  be 
unanimous." 

Cooperation  involves  also  harmony  with  the 
will,  with  the  mind,  with  the  personality,  with 
the  presence,  and  with  the  activities  of  God. 
Will  you  understand  if  I  say  that  this  is  not 
always  easy  to  men,  even  to  pious  men.^  Many 
men  never  do  learn  how  to  place  God  properly 
and  happily  in  the  scheme  of  their  lives.  They 
worship  him  in  their  way,  but  do  not  count  him 
or  like  him,  or  practically  have  much  to  do  with 
him.  They  regard  his  will  a  hard  will  and 
submission  to  it  a  kind  of  martyrdom  and  a 
mark  of  special  grace.  They  misinterpret  his 
presence  as  unnecessary  or  possibly  trouble- 
some and  interfering.    They  love  him  with  their 

239 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

hearts,  but  not  with  their  minds  at  all.  If  the 
ministry  is  weak  to-day,  it  is  weak  here,  in  its 
lack  of  cooperation  with  God  in  his  will,  his 
thoughts,  his  presence,  his  activities  and  larger 
purposes  in  the  world.  We  depend  upon  and 
cooperate  with  wealth,  numbers,  and  ability; 
we  are  deferential  to  public  opinion,  careful 
not  to  do  anything  our  people  will  not  stand 
for,  but  we  are  weak  in  that  dependence  upon 
God,  that  reliance  upon  God,  that  confidence 
in  God,  and  that  cooperation  with  God  that 
has  ever  made  ministries  and  men  great,  and 
especially  made  that  other  Minister  supreme. 

Cooperation  consists  also  in  working  har- 
moniously and  appreciatively  with  other  men. 
This  also  is  not  easy.  Other  men  are  hard  to 
work  with.  They  are  often  difficult  and  some- 
times disagreeable.  They  do  not  think  as  we 
think.  Many  of  us  are  sure  we  can  do  our 
work  better  alone.  We  would  ten  times  rather 
go  off  and  do  a  thing  than  work  with  a  com- 
mittee. And  yet,  take  my  word  for  it — a  word 
confirmed  by  many  sad  proofs — no  minister 
comes  to  his  best  estate  except  by  the  way  of 
human  cooperation.  Many  a  brilliant,  able 
man  has  come  to  high  place  in  church  or  state, 
and  come  to  grief  in  that  high  place  through 
inability  to  cooperate  with  other  men.  My 
father  was  once  buying  a  horse.     The  owner 

240 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  COOPERATION 

was  telling  the  animal's  qualities.  He  said: 
"This  horse  will  work  single  or  double,  on  the 
near  side  or  on  the  off  side,  in  harness  or  under 
the  saddle,  in  the  quiet  of  the  country  or  the 
noise  of  the  town.  He  will  work  anywhere, 
anyway  you  try  him,  with  any  kind  of  a  beast 
that  will  pull."  The  owner  was  an  honest 
man  and  told  the  truth  even  when  trying  to  sell 
a  horse.  Which  things  again  are  a  parable. 
Many  a  man  will  work  well  single,  but  not  in  a 
team;  will  work  well  as  chairman — in  the  lead 
— but  nowhere  else  in  the  team;  will  work  well 
in  harness,  but  will  become  a  bucking  broncho 
under  the  saddle  will  work  well  as  long  as 
things  are  quiet,  but  when  confusion  comes  will 
grow  nervous  and  irritable  and  kick  over  the 
traces;  will  work  where  he  likes  to  work,  but  not 
anywhere  that  he  may  be  put.  Maybe  I  have 
got  men  and  horses  all  mixed  up  in  these  sen- 
tences, but  perhaps  the  meaning  is  clear  enough. 
Anyhow,  here  is  a  secret:  no  one  can  pull  the 
world's  load,  or  save  the  world  or  a  town  all  by 
himself;  nor  can  you  always  determine  which 
side  of  the  pole  you  will  be  on,  or  what  kind  of 
person  will  be  on  the  other  side.  But  you  ought 
to  be  able  to  pull  wherever  you  are  with  any- 
body and  everybody  that  is  pulling.  The  ability 
to  get  along  with  other  people,  to  work  with 
other  people,  is  one  of  the  vital  tests  of  a  min- 

241 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

ister  or  a  foreign  missionary.  Nearly  all  for- 
eign mission  boards  make  a  distinct  question 
out  of  this.  If  a  candidate,  of  whatever  other 
qualities,  lacks  the  ability  to  live  and  work 
harmoniously  with  other  workers  in  the  same 
field,  that  lack  is  regarded  as  a  disqualification 
for  service  on  the  foreign  field. 

Cooperation  also  consists  in  working  with  all 
the  forces  that  make  for  the  new  earth  wherein 
dwelleth  righteousness.  Nor  is  this  easy.  Some 
of  those  forces  are  not  baptized.  They  do  not 
care  much  for  the  church  or  the  ministry.  They 
do  not  pronounce  our  shibboleth.  There  is  an 
immense  quantity  of  such  powers  outside  the 
church.  Work  with  them,  work  with  them, 
work  with  them.  Do  not  fight  against  any 
force  that  is  fighting  Christ's  hard  battles  in 
this  world.  The  church  is  not  the  only  agency 
he  has.  To  change  the  figure,  we  are  not  the 
only  sheep  that  belong  to  him. 

These  are  features,  though  not  the  only  fea- 
tures, of  cooperation.  A  definition  now  is  un- 
necessary. The  spirit  and  purpose  are  the 
things  to  make  sure  of.  Remember  that  we  do 
not  guarantee  the  existence  of  a  thing  when  we 
have  correctly  defined  it. 

The  ministry  of  cooperation  strikes  its  roots 
into  a  half  dozen  living  regions.  First  it  strikes 
into  the  region  of  success.    Even  the  ministry 

242 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  COOPERATION 

of  Jesus  Christ  must  concern  itself  with  the 
question  of  success,  which  is  both  a  beautiful 
and  an  ugly  thing.  If  it  is  interpreted  and 
tested  personally  and  selfishly,  it  is  ugly.  This 
kind  of  success  destroys  the  very  foundations  of 
cooperation.  Nothing  can  be  done  on  such  a 
basis.  The  good  here  is  so  close  to  the  bad  as 
to  make  us  walk  carefully.  For  there  cannot 
be  any  general  success,  any  success  for  the 
Kingdom,  for  the  whole  Church  of  Christ  if 
personal  success  be  absent  and  lacking.  Failing 
individuals  cannot  make  a  winning  Kingdom. 
But  if  individual  success  be  the  standard,  the 
goal,  the  end,  the  test,  "then  dies  the  man  in 
us,"  and  then  fails  the  Kingdom  in  the  earth. 
There  are  two  questions,  one  personal,  the  other 
large  and  impersonal.  What  comes  to  the  man, 
what  does  he  come  to,  what  does  he  reach  in  his 
ministry?  And  what  happens  to  the  cause,  the 
larger  cause,  the  whole  cause  in  the  world? 
Test  your  ministry,  test  any  man's  ministry, 
test  the  ministry  of  Jesus  by  those  questions 
and  see  where  the  test  lands  you.  Men  in  the 
ministry  have  reached  the  heights  of  position, 
reputation,  and  reward.  They  have  been  min- 
istered unto  through  popular,  prosperous  years. 
And  it  has  all  been  individual  and  self -centered 
and  sometimes  selfish.  And  neither  the  de- 
nomination  nor  the  Kingdom   has   been   any 

243 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

stronger  or  more  efficient  in  the  world  because 
of  them.  They  do  not  work  with  other  men. 
They  go  their  own  way.  They  regard  them- 
selves as  in  a  class  by  themselves.  The  com- 
mon bm-dens  are  carried  without  them,  carried 
often  by  weaker  men  in  weaker  churches.  If 
you  are  going  to  be  that  kind  of  minister,  there 
is  no  real  place  for  you  in  the  modern  world, 
though  you  may  get  a  very  prominent  place. 
Nor  can  you  reach  your  own  highest  success 
that  way,  though  you  may  seem  to  succeed 
above  all  others.  The  strength  of  a  strong 
man  lies  in  his  individuality  and  his  inde- 
pendence, and  there  lies  his  weakness  also. 
The  strength  of  society  is  in  the  strong  man. 
"The  strength  of  the  pack  is  the  wolf."  In 
state  and  church,  in  army — everywhere  the  in- 
dividual counts.  Do  not  deny  the  truth  of  it. 
God  wants  every  man  at  his  best,  and  the  more 
big  men  he  has  the  more  he  can  do,  unless  they 
are  just  big  men  and  not  also  big  brothers. 
"The  strength  of  the  pack  is  the  wolf,"  but 
that  truth  does  not  stand  alone.  Few  truths 
do.  The  strength  of  the  state  is  the  citizen, 
the  strength  of  the  army  is  the  soldier,  the 
strength  of  the  church  is  the  member,  but  also 
the  strength  of  the  citizen  is  the  state,  the 
strength  of  the  soldier  is  the  army,  the  strength 
of  the  member  is  the  church.    No  man  living 

244 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  COOPERATION 

to  himself  lives  at  his  best.  "Christian  ethics  is 
the  science  of  living  well  with  one  another  ac- 
cording to  Christ."  The  Christian  ministry  is 
the  science  of  serving  and  working  nobly,  never 
too  nobly,  but  never  alone,  with  one  another, 
always  in  fellowship  and  cooperation,  and  al- 
ways according  to  that  other  Minister  and  his 
ministry.  If  ever  one  was  strong  enough  to  go 
it  alone,  he  was.  If  ever  one  taught  us  the 
lesson  of  fellowship  and  cooperation,  he  did. 

Churches  are  like  ministers  in  this  respect. 
No  single  church  is  succeeding  in  a  town  when 
the  Kingdom  in  that  town  is  losing.  Churches 
and  ministers  sometimes  count  their  own  pros- 
perity the  chief  thing.  They  build  at  the  ex- 
pense of  other  churches  and  justify  it  by  spe- 
cious arguments  that  deceive  no  one.  The 
thing  that  happens  after  a  union  revival,  when 
the  heart-burning  distribution  of  converts  be- 
gins, makes  a  sorry  spectacle.  Certain  ministers 
are  commonly  known  to  their  brethren  as  sheep 
thieves  rather  than  shepherds.  They  replenish 
their  own  flocks  with  the  plunder  they  get  by 
shameful  effort  from  other  flocks.  My  brethren, 
it  is  too  late  in  Christ's  day  for  that.  The  minis- 
try of  cooperation  will  build  the  whole  Kingdom, 
and  if  it  be  not  doing  that  it  is  no  ministry  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Exaggerated  individualism  or  ex- 
aggerated denominationalism  is  just  as  ugly  as 

245 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

exaggerated  nationalism.  We  have  passed  the 
days  when  tribal  warfare  and  its  methods  look 
decent  even  in  church  life.  Our  success  lies  at 
last  in  our  service  and  meaning  to  the  whole 
cause  of  Christ. 

The  ministry  of  cooperation  runs,  also, 
straight  into  the  question  of  federation  and 
church  union,  about  which  an  incredible  amount 
of  nonsense  has  been  spoken  and  written. 
Maybe  some  more  is  about  to  be  spoken.  Men 
have  waxed  merry  and  sarcastic  over  the  di- 
visions in  the  Church  of  Christ.  They  have 
told  with  glee  how  many  varieties,  subvarieties, 
and  brands  of  Christianity  we  have  at  home. 
They  have  been  almost  pathetic  over  the  per- 
plexity of  the  poor  heathen  in  the  face  of  all 
these  kinds  of  Christianity  presented  to  him. 
Men  with  a  consuming  sense  of  economy 
wherever  religion  is  concerned  pile  up  the 
financial  statistics,  sometimes  with  such  sor- 
row in  their  tones  that  you  are  almost  per- 
suaded that  they  pay  these  exorbitant  bills 
themselves.  Now,  grant  all  that  without  any 
more  argument.  The  present  divisions  of 
Christianity  are  not  good  to  look  at,  but  the 
achievements  of  Christianity  have  been  wrought 
out  under  God  by  these  separated  churches,  and 
at  present  the  fate  of  Christianity  in  the  world 
is  in  the  hands  of  the  denominations  which 

246 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  COOPERATION 

some  would  easily  destroy.  Let  us  not  destroy 
the  best  agencies  in  existence  until  we  can 
surely  replace  them  with  better  ones. 

Here  are  two  or  three  simple  propositions: 

1.  The  churches  that  now  exist  could,  with- 
out a  particle  of  change  in  their  forms  of  faith, 
cooperate  with  one  another  for  Christ's  sake  to 
a  degree  at  present  unknown.  We  have  made 
a  good  beginning  in  the  Federal  Council  of  the 
Churches  of  Christ  in  America.  And  we  have 
proved  the  statement  in  a  dozen  ways. 

2.  A  degree  of  even  organic  union  is  already 
possible  without  essential  change  of  form  or 
faith  which  would  amaze  the  world.  Only  the 
will  is  lacking.  God  will  not  hold  guiltless 
men  who  keep  apart  what  ought  to  be  together. 

3.  Churches  are  not  made  one  simply  by 
being  put  into  the  same  organization.  Mar- 
riage does  not  unite  people,  it  only  gives  them 
the  right  to  live  together.  Love  alone  unites 
and  makes  them  one.  Love  between  ministers 
and  churches  is  possible,  even  the  love  that 
makes  them  one,  even  where  no  formal  union 
occurs.  Ephraim  and  Judah  could  both  im- 
prove their  conduct  toward  one  another,  even 
though  each  remains  a  separate  tribe. 

4.  And  one  big  church,  embracing  all  Chris- 
tendom in  one  organization,  would  promptly 
develop  difficulties  and  vices  of  its  own.     We 

247 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

can  escape  the  weaknesses  of  division  by  union. 
Then  we  should  need  some  process  to  correct 
the  weaknesses  incident  to  having  only  one 
church.  The  remedy  is  in  spiritual  unity,  and 
that  can  be  applied  from  either  side. 

5.  And  we  shall  not  win  the  world  for  Christ 
on  our  present  basis.  We  are  not  winning  it. 
With  all  our  comforting  and  gratifying  successes 
we  are  not  winning  either  the  near  or  the  far 
world  for  Christ.  The  Methodists  cannot  do 
it  alone,  nor  can  the  Baptists  or  Presbyterians, 
nor  any  other  single  church.  A  divided  Protes- 
tantism cannot  do  it.  Maybe  even  a  Protes- 
tantism united  could  not  do  it  alone.  Romanism 
cannot  do  it.  We  could  not  all  do  it  if  we  were 
only  formally  united.  Maybe  if  we  all  had  the 
spirit  of  Christ  toward  the  world  and  toward 
one  another,  whether  in  one  body  or  many,  we 
should  soon  see  the  earth  filled  with  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  glory  of  the  Lord.  If  we  were  really 
one,  as  Christ  prayed  we  might  be,  not  one  big 
ecclesiasticism  for  which  he  never  prayed,  we 
should  be  well-nigh  irresistible.  He  and  his 
Father  were  one,  not  as  an  ecclesiasticism  with 
all  its  perils,  but  one  in  their  common  purpose, 
one  in  their  mutual  regard,  one  in  their  deep 
and  holy  love,  one  in  their  redeeming  attitude 
to  the  world.  It  is  not  to-day,  it  never  was,  the 
formal  union  of  the  churches,  that  is  lacking 

248 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  COOPERATION 

to  make  the  church  one  as  Jesus  and  the  Father 
were  one,  or  lacking  to  make  the  churches  su- 
premely efficient.  It  is  the  lack  of  the  common 
purpose,  the  mutual  regard,  the  deep  and  holy 
love  for  one  another  and  the  world,  the  re- 
demptive attitude  that  must  ever  mark  the 
church  and  its  ministry.  The  incarnation,  the 
atonement,  the  cross  must  be  in  the  life  of  all 
the  churches,  not  as  the  doctrines  they  preach, 
but  as  the  principles  by  which  they  live  and  live 
together.  Thus,  and  thus  only,  shall  we  get  rid 
of  our  airs,  our  pretensions,  our  partisanships, 
and  our  weaknesses.  Who  are  we,  any  of  us, 
that  by  reason  of  age  or  history,  of  size  or 
strength,  of  wealth  or  standing,  we  should  put 
on  airs  and  assume  special  standing  in  Christ's 
kingdom?  that  we  should  repudiate  and  dis- 
credit those  whom  God  has  honored  and  mani- 
festly approved?  Who  are  we  that  we  should 
go  about  saying  "I  am  of  Paul,"  or  "I  am  of 
Apollos,"  or  "I  am  of  Peter,"  or,  with  special 
assumption,  "I  am  of  Christ"?  Is  not  this  the 
way  men  of  the  world  speak? 

"What,  then,  is  Apollos?  And  what  is  Paul? 
They  are  just  God's  servants,  through  whose 
efforts,  and  as  the  Lord  granted  power  to  each, 
you  accepted  the  faith.  I  planted  and  Apollos 
watered;  but  it  was  God  who  was,  all  the  time, 
giving  the  increase.    So  that  neither  the  planter 

249 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

nor  the  waterer  is  of  any  importance.  God 
who  gives  the  increase  is  all  in  all.  Now  in 
aim  and  purpose  the  planter  and  the  waterer 
are  one;  and  yet  each  will  receive  his  own 
special  reward,  answering  to  his  own  special 
work.  Apollos  and  I  are  simply  fellow  workers 
for  and  with  God,  and  you  are  God's  field — 
God's  building." 

Any  kind  of  spiritual  pride  or  self-conceit  is 
hateful  and  ugly — ugly  like  national  pride  and 
contempt  for  small  states.  Some  of  the  best 
churches  in  this  world  are  small.  The  saving 
remnant  is  not  usually  a  majority.  Ecclesias- 
tical pride,  assumption  of  self-conceit  is  about 
the  worst  kind  there  is.  This  ugly  thing  can 
be  cured  only  by  an  overwhelming  loyalty  to 
Christ  which  will  look  at  all  his  flock  through 
his  eyes. 

6.  We  shall  not  unite  Protestantism,  nor 
Christendom,  nor  any  divided  portions  thereof, 
to  any  purpose  by  any  mechanical  process  or 
on  any  small  basis.  We  may  agree  on  a  form 
of  government,  or  a  doctrinal  statement,  or 
about  the  ministry  and  the  sacraments,  and  may 
thus  make  a  formal  union.  We  may  even  unite 
on  the  grounds  of  economy  to  stop  the  waste 
of  men  and  money.  There  is  a  desire  for  union 
that  is  based  solely  upon  the  wish  to  avoid 
waste  and  conflict,  not  upon  the  deep  desire 

250 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  COOPERATION 

for  harmony  and  spiritual  efficiency.  The  mo- 
tive is  not  big  enough  to  carry  the  movement. 
No  union  will  answer  Christ's  prayer  or  the 
needs  of  the  world  except  a  vital,  living  union, 
manifesting  itself  in  a  threefold  passion:  1.  A 
common,  passionate  opposition  to  the  evil  in 
the  world.  2.  A  common,  passionate  consecra- 
tion to  the  redemption  and  welfare  of  the  world. 
3.  A  common,  passionate  devotion  and  obedi- 
ence to  Jesus  Christ  the  Redeemer  and  Lord  of 
the  world. 

The  evil  of  the  world  is  a  fierce,  monstrous 
thing.  The  destruction  of  human  character  by 
this  evil  is  overwhelming.  Never  say  one  good 
word  for  evil,  never  cease  your  warfare  against  it 
in  all  its  hideous  forms.  Rejoice  in  and  work  with 
any  ally  who  will  help  destroy  it.  You  remem- 
ber the  story  there  in  that  old  record.  The 
disciples  said  to  that  other  Minister:  "Master, 
we  saw  one  casting  out  devils  in  thy  name,  and 
we  forbad  him  because  he  was  not  a  member 
of  our  company."  Early,  you  see,  that  spirit 
got  into  the  church.  It  abides  to  this  day.  I 
will  not  add  to  our  unhappy  relations  by  quot- 
ing sentences  in  the  same  spirit  uttered  in  far 
more  recent  times.  Let  those  who  have  this 
spirit  have  it  and  bear  the  responsibility  for  it, 
whether  they  keep  silence  or  flaunt  their  view 
in  the  face  of  Christendom.     I  commend  this 

251 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

instead,  the  utterance  of  One  whose  heart  the 
evil  of  the  world  broke  and  keeps  broken: 
"Forbid  him  not:  for  he  that  is  not  against  us 
is  for  us."  When  there  are  devils  to  be  east  out 
we  must  all  lay  to  with  any  club  that  comes 
handy  and  work  with  any  ally  who  will  hon- 
estly and  effectively  help.  Casting  out  devils 
is  not  a  nice  business.  You  may  have  to  use 
and  cooperate  with  a  lot  of  unordained  and 
even  unbaptized  men  in  the  process.  If  you 
have  the  passionate  opposition  to  evil  which  the 
Master  had,  you  will  gladly  unite  with  all  the 
foes  of  evil  to  rid  the  world  of  it. 

Why  is  it  so  hard  even  in  the  Christian 
Church  to  maintain  a  constant,  passionate  con- 
secration to  human  welfare  and  redemption? 
We  readily  go  into  an  occasional  fight  with 
heartiness  and  energy.  We  have  spasms  of 
consecration  to  phases  of  human  welfare,  but 
no  steadiness,  no  lifelong  passion,  no  zeal  that 
eats  us  up  year  in  and  year  out.  Our  battles 
are  short,  our  furloughs  long  and  out  of  pro- 
portion. Just  now  we  are  about  to  have  a 
spasm  of  such  constructive  devotion  to  repair 
the  ravages  of  the  world  war.  But  it  needs  a 
crisis,  it  has  always  needed  a  crisis  to  drive 
us  back  into  the  heart  of  God  and  to  awaken 
in  us  even  a  spasm  of  the  kind  of  consecration 
needed  for  world  redemption.     Of  course  this 

252 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  COOPERATION 

world  war  puts  such  a  burden  in  a  striking  way 
upon  us,  just  as  other  crises  have  done.  The 
war  brings  in  its  train  a  perfectly  huge  moral 
and  social  ruin.  We  are  eager  to  do  our  best 
in  the  face  of  it.  "God  seems  to  be  turning 
another  corner  m  human  history,  and  we  are 
wilHng  to  help  him  do  it."  But  turning  cor- 
ners in  history,  coming  once  in  a  while  to  the 
help  of  the  Lord  against  the  mighty,  meeting 
crises  in  world  life,  are  not  the  chief  things  nor 
the  best  way,  though  it  has  often  seemed  so. 
The  dramatic  and  urgent  makes  excessive  ap- 
peal to  us.  What  corners  and  crises  would 
have  been  avoided  in  human  history  if  from  the 
days  of  Jesus  to  this  day  his  church  had  been 
one,  and  one  with  him  in  a  positive,  constant, 
passionate  consecration  to  the  welfare  and  re- 
demption of  mankind.  I  make  no  plea  that  we 
shall  have  a  zeal  to  get  together  as  though  that 
were  an  end  in  itself.  Getting  together  is  often 
utterly  shallow  and  fruitless,  a  process  without 
any  moral  passion  in  it.  A  zeal  to  get  together 
is  a  very  different  thing  from  a  holy  zeal  to  get 
the  world  forward  toward  the  new  heavens  and 
the  new  earth.  Such  consecration  is  too  rare. 
Its  possessors  are  regarded  as  singular  and  in- 
clined to  be  religious  overmuch.  We  have  all 
these  emotions  under  quite  too  perfect  control. 
Only  on  occasion  do  we  let  them  have  free 

253 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

course.  The  churches  in  any  town  are  marked 
by  the  calmness,  the  self-restraint,  the  ordinari- 
ness of  their  consecration,  the  humdrum  of 
their  life,  the  lack  of  daring  and  heroism  in 
their  adventure,  and  the  occasionalness  and 
conservatism  of  their  positive  devotion.  Now, 
how  can  there  be  a  ministry  of  cooperation  or 
any  approach  to  union  in  an  atmosphere  like 
that? 

Meantime  one  crisis  follows  another  and  the 
divided  church  tries  frantically  to  meet  these 
crises  as  they  arise,  faihng  to  do  it  and  failing 
to  see  that  a  church  united  in  spirit  and  pas- 
sionately consecrated  to  the  welfare  and  re- 
demption of  the  world  could  have  prevented, 
could  now  prevent  many  of  the  cataclysms  and 
storms,  the  wrecks  and  ruin,  the  devastations 
and  destructions  which  it  vainly  seeks  to  repair 
and  heal.  Is  it  always  to  go  on  this  way?  In 
the  little  world  and  the  big  one  is  Christianity 
to  be  helpless  by  reason  of  its  pettiness  and 
complacency,  or  shall  we  follow  the  more  excel- 
lent way  which  God  has  shown  us?  If  there  is  no 
way  but  by  revolution  and  crash,  then  let  us 
have  that  way,  and  make  the  best  of  it,  but  let 
us  not  glorify  crisis  and  excuse  our  lack  of  con- 
secration as  though  it  were  a  good  way. 

Are  the  churches  in  any  town  one  in  a  com- 
mon, passionate  devotion  to  Jesus  Christ,  the 

254 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  COOPERATION 

Redeemer  and  Lord  of  the  world?  They  are 
quick  to  affirm  his  lordship  as  a  doctrinal  test 
which  sets  the  orthodox  sheep  in  one  group  and 
puts  the  unorthodox  goats  where  they  belong, 
but  a  doctrinal  affirmation  may  be  very  firmly 
and  noisily  made  in  a  body  whose  personal  de- 
votion is  very  weak  and  vague.  Admiration  of 
Jesus  is  widespread,  the  praise  of  his  character, 
his  words,  his  deeds  is  in  all  the  churches.  We 
speak  tenderly  of  him  and  sing  rapturously  of 
him,  but  even  the  members  of  a  given  local 
church  are  not  conscious  of  being  one  with  one 
another  in  a  common,  passionate  devotion  to 
him,  their  Redeemer  from  sin  and  the  Lord  of 
their  lives.  Much  less  are  the  churches  in  a 
town  so  united.  One  does  not  like  to  speak  of 
the  vast  and  paralyzing  unconsciousness  of 
Jesus  the  Redeemer  and  Lord  of  life  which  per- 
vades the  churches  that  bear  his  name,  the 
unconsciousness  of  him  which  permits  people 
to  go  on  day  by  day  as  if  he  were  not. 

Maybe  this  is  the  best  we  can  do.  Maybe  we 
can  expect  nothing  else.  Maybe  this  is  good 
enough.  Maybe  we  can  look  for  no  better 
cooperation  than  we  now  have.  Maybe  the 
basis  of  cooperation  has  not  yet  appeared.  I 
do  not  believe  it.  We  go  slowly,  all  too  slowly, 
toward  it,  but  some  day  the  followers  of  Christ 
must  surely  be  one  in  the  threefold  passion: 

255 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

1.  A  common,  passionate  opposition  to  the  evil 
in  the  world.  2.  A  common,  passionate  conse- 
cration to  the  redemption  and  welfare  of  the 
world.  3.  A  common,  passionate  devotion  and 
obedience  to  Jesus  Christ  the  Redeemer  and 
Lord  of  the  world.  This  would  unite  us  in  the 
passion  of  supreme  aims  and  high  purposes,  and 
would  be  a  token  of  strength.  Anything  else 
would  get  us  together  on  a  basis  of  low  moral 
energy  and  would  be  a  sign  of  weakness.  It  is 
for  us  to  bring  this  passion  into  our  near,  small 
world  without  waiting  for  it  to  come  in  the  far, 
big  world.  For  thus  it  will  come  in  the  earth  as 
it  has  already  come  in  the  heavens. 

The  ministry  of  cooperation  has  its  roots  also 
in  the  soil  of  Christian  tolerance,  tolerance  both 
in  small  and  in  large  relations.  One  hesitates 
to  use  that  noble  word  because  of  the  ignoble 
meanings  that  have  come  to  be  associated  with 
it.  For  when  tolerance  is  identified  with  in- 
differentism,  and  the  "mush  of  concession,"  then 
intolerance,  hot  and  fierce,  seems  to  be  virtue. 
Better  ten  thousand  times  an  unyielding  in- 
tolerance than  such  a  spirit  as  that.  Nor  is 
toleration  any  better.  This  only  mixes  an  ele- 
ment of  condescension  and  patronage  with  the 
attitude  of  indifference.  And  neither  is  to  be 
endured.  There  is  a  false  tolerance  which  is 
very  popular  with  some  who  wish  to  be  thought 

256 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  COOPERATION 

broad  and  liberal.  This  is  the  tolerance  which 
sees  no  differences  in  things  that  differ,  which 
declares  that  one  view  is  as  good  as  another, 
and  that  it  does  not  matter  what  a  man  be- 
lieves or  where  he  belongs.  This  is  the  spirit 
that  approves  all  churches  and  is  worth  nothing 
to  any.  It  agrees  with  everybody  and  goes 
about  in  an  eternal  attitude  of  bland  and  tire- 
some amiability  which  it  mistakes  for  tolerance. 
The  doctrinal  cloud  is  weasel,  camel,  or  whale, 
either  or  all. 

What,  then,  is  tolerance  and  what  are  its 
applications  in  any  true  minister's  life.'^  It 
surely  is  not  a  habit  one  may  put  on  nor  a 
formal  attitude  one  may  assume,  but  a  spirit 
filling  one's  deepest  convictions  and  firmest 
opinions,  and  determining  one's  personal  rela- 
tions with  other  men.  It  is  not  a  quality  that  be- 
longs to  a  weak  or  flabby  mind,  a  vague  faith  or  a 
feeble  personality.  It  is  not  founded  upon  lack 
of  conviction  or  upon  uncertainty,  but  upon 
depth  of  conviction  and  wealth  of  certainty.  It 
can  be  found  only  in  the  man  who  is  the  captain 
of  his  own  soul  in  all  that  soul's  positive  rela- 
tion to  truth,  to  experience,  and  to  human  life. 
If  positiveness  be  lacking,  no  tolerance  is  pos- 
sible; if  positiveness  goes  wrong,  it  becomes 
bigotry.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  positiveness  be 
filled  with  respect  for  other  personalities,  charity 

257 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

toward  other  views,  though  it  does  not  hold 
them,  spiritual  sympathy  and  insight  which 
recognizes  that  truth  is  larger  than  any  one 
man's  hold  upon  it  and  life  larger  than  any  one 
man's  possession  of  it,  then  tolerance  is  born, 
born  of  positiveness  and  breadth,  assurance  and 
sympathy. 

I  am  always  thinking  of  that  other  Minister 
who  was  the  living  definition  of  everything  that 
was  best.  If  anyone  ever  had  the  right  to  be 
intolerant  he  had  that  right.  He  knew  the 
truth  as  no  one  else  knew  it.  He  possessed 
wisdom  as  no  one  else  possessed  it.  In  the 
realm  of  life  and  the  things  of  the  spirit  he 
walked  the  way  of  infallibility  as  no  one  else 
ever  did.  In  character  and  conduct  he  was 
blameless  and  perfect  as  no  one  of  his  contem- 
poraries was.  If  ever  the  intolerant  attitude 
and  spirit  could  be  justified  in  anyone,  they 
could  be  justified  in  him.  He  had  to  deal  with 
men  who  were  narrow,  shallow,  mistaken,  and 
stubborn.  He  knew  what  was  in  the  men 
around  him.  The  disciples  were  as  difficult  to 
work  with  as  any  official  board,  vestry,  or  ses- 
sion that  any  modern  minister  has  to  deal  with. 
In  our  modern  life  the  narrowness  is  not  all 
outside  of  the  pulpit.  You  may  cause  as  many 
trials  as  you  will  suffer.  But  our  Master  saw 
underneath  all  the  ignorance  and  narrowness  the 

258 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  COOPERATION 

essential  integrity  of  every  other  soul,  the  pos- 
sible growth  and  outcome  in  every  man,  and 
never  spoiled  another  soul  or  his  own  by  any 
intolerant  assertion  of  his  own  superiority.  He 
did  not  weakly  yield  nor  weakly  bluster  and 
assert  his  prerogatives.  He  simply  planted  his 
own  perfect  life  in  perfect  tolerance  in  the  lives 
of  those  other  men  and  transformed  them  into 
the  same  image.  The  process  was  slow  and  the 
result  imperfect,  but  the  method  was  perfect 
for  him  and  for  us,  except  that  always  we  must 
be  even  more  modest  than  he  was,  always  less 
sure  of  the  absolute  correctness  of  our  opinions 
and  our  lives.  If  you  want,  then,  to  see  toler- 
ance alive,  study  that  other  Minister  in  whom 
it  perfectly  dwelt. 

You  will  have  abundant  opportunity  and  ne- 
cessity for  the  exercise  and  practice  of  this 
spirit  in  your  ministry  of  cooperation,  just  as 
your  brethren  will.  Just  in  so  far  as  your  own 
faith  is  positive,  your  own  vision  large,  your 
own  life  full,  you  will  be  sorely  tried  by  contact 
with  those  whose  faith  is  feeble,  vision  narrow, 
and  life  meager.  They  will  be  in  your  official 
boards  or  vestries  or  sessions.  They  will  seek 
to  determine  the  policy  of  your  church  and  the 
ideals  of  your  ministry.  They  will  measure 
your  preaching  by  their  standards  and  will  balk 
your   largest,    most    spiritual,    most    cherished 

259 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

plans.  They  will  set  their  own  utter  intolerance 
over  against  you  until  you  will  feel  that  no  co- 
operation is  possible  between  you  and  them.  I 
dread  for  you  the  trying,  difficult  day  that  will 
come  early  in  your  ministry  when  this  assault 
comes  upon  you.  It  will  come  partly  because 
you  are  young  and  inexperienced.  You  will  be 
liable  to  make  mistakes,  and  bring  it  on.  Many 
a  minister  has  had  his  spirit  broken  under  it, 
and  has  either  left  the  ministry  to  escape  the 
intolerance  of  other  men  or  has  himself  become 
hard  and  intolerant,  meeting  intolerance  with 
intolerance,  giving  like  for  like,  and  finally  de- 
stroying his  own  best  spirit.  From  within  your 
own  church,  from  your  own  brethren,  laymen 
and  ministers,  from  other  churches  in  the  town 
and  the  world,  from  within  your  own  soul, 
from  the  world  itself  this  grinding,  crushing 
force  will  come  upon  you,  assailing  you  where 
you  are  most  sensitive  and  susceptible  to  hurt. 
It  will  wear  out  your  soul  if  you  allow  it  to  do  so> 
as  it  tried  to  wear  out  the  soul  of  your  Master. 
Now,  when  it  comes  and  as  it  comes,  remember 
that  you  can  have  a  ministry  of  tolerance  and 
cooperation,  or  you  can  have  a  ministry  of  in- 
tolerance without  cooperation,  but  you  cannot 
have  both.  Remember  that  the  life  of  your 
own  spirit  is  involved,  and  never  even  for  an 
hour  meet  littleness   with  littleness,   hardness 

260 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  COOPERATION 

with  hardness.  The  process  will  be  slow,  but 
the  life  that  is  large,  the  faith  that  is  vital,  the 
humanity  that  is  Christlike  even  toward  in- 
tolerant men  will  win,  will  win  in  your  own  life 
and  at  last  in  the  lives  of  those  other  men. 
Neither  you  nor  your  ministry  can  get  on  in 
the  world  without  this  spirit.  You  can  live  in 
the  atmosphere  of  loyalty  and  love,  but  no 
ministry  of  Jesus  can  live  in  the  atmosphere  of 
bigotry. 

The  ministry  of  cooperation  has  both  root  and 
fruit  in  a  true  Christian  leadership,  another 
word  one  hesitates  to  use.  If  words  grow 
weary  when  overworked,  this  one  must  long 
since  have  reached  the  state  of  complete  ex- 
haustion. A  speech  is  hardly  complete  unless 
it  bewails  the  lack  of  leadership  and  asserts  the 
need  of  it.  When  Lord  Salisbury  asked  Lord 
Roberts  to  go  to  South  Africa,  he  said,  "We 
are  finding  that  this  war  depends  upon  the 
generals."  This  sentence  is  much  quoted  and 
remembered  to  this  day,  particularly  by  those 
who  are  modestly  conscious  of  being  generals 
and  having  the  capacity  for  large  leadership. 
And  the  general,  the  military  commander, 
promptly  becomes  the  ideal,  the  type  of  leader 
which  gets  into  our  minds.  And  we  do  not 
see  how  even  a  brief  discussion  of  leadership 
gets  into  a  study  of  the  ministry  of  cooperation. 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

These,  surely,  are  terms  almost  mutually  ex- 
clusive. But  this  is  exactly  the  place  for  this 
word.  These  are  correlated,  mutually  inclusive 
terms.  Neither  can  exist  without  the  other. 
There  can  be  no  leadership  without  cooperation. 
One  who  cannot  secure  cooperation  may  be  very 
able  and  advanced,  independent  and  solitary, 
but  he  is  not  a  leader.  One  may  cooperate 
without  advancing,  cooperate  on  low  levels,  co- 
operate without  goals  or  progress  toward  them, 
without  being  a  leader.  But  a  ministry  cannot 
be  at  its  best  unless  it  is  a  ministry  which  is 
both  getting  forward  and  leading  forward.  It 
is  not  a  true  ministry,  a  ministry  of  the  best 
sort,  when  it  is  simply  going  forward,  no  matter 
how  bravely  and  independently.  For  these  are 
overwhelmingly  personal  terms,  that  cannot 
really  be  thought  of  apart  from  close  personal 
relations.  Neither  dwells  chiefly  in  the  realm 
of  ideas.  They  live  and  move  and  have  their 
being  in  the  realm  of  personal  life.  The  life  in 
the  leader  is  the  light  of  men.  It  is  not  inde- 
pendent or  abstract. 

Of  course  a  leader  must  be  in  advance,  must 
have  a  goal,  must  know  where  that  goal  is  and 
the  way  to  it,  but,  of  course  also,  he  is  not  a 
leader  if  the  goal  is  simply  his  individual  goal 
which  he  is  seeking  to  reach  by  himself,  not 
caring  what  becomes  of  the  others.    Lowell  said 

262 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  COOPERATION 

of  Garrison:  "He  is  so  used  to  standing  alone 
that,  like  Daniel  Boone,  he  moves  away  as  the 
world  creeps  up  to  him  and  goes  further  into 
the  wilderness.  He  considers  every  step  a  step 
forward,  even  though  it  be  over  the  edge  of  a 
precipice."  But  that  is  not  real  leadership. 
Remember  what  Matthew  Arnold  said  of  his 
father: 

"Thou,  thou  wouldst  not  be  saved  alone. 

Therefore  to  thee  it  was  given 
Many  to  bring  with  thyself." 

You  are  expecting  to  be  leaders  in  the  realm 
of  the  life  of  the  spirit.  You  ought  to  be.  There 
is  tragic  need  of  leadership  in  this  realm.  Your 
ideal  is  not  the  commander,  though  even  he 
can  do  nothing  without  perfect  cooperation,  but 
the  Shepherd!  That  noble  figure  breaks  into 
our  ministry  at  every  turn,  breaks  in  just  at 
those  points  where  we  least  look  for  it,  breaks  in 
with  those  qualities  that  make  us  bow  our  heads 
and  hold  our  hearts  with  wonder.  Just  when  we 
are  tempted  to  be  self-assertive  and  masterful 
in  our  leadership,  or  "magerful,"  as  Sentimental 
Tommy  put  it,  we  get  the  vision  of  that  other 
One  and  hear  the  words,  **He  walks  at  the  head 
of  them  and  the  sheep  follow  him."  The  wis- 
dom of  the  leader  is  superior.  In  the  realm  of 
religion  you  ought  to  be  the  wisest  person  in 

263 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

your  church.  The  vision  of  the  leader  should 
be  clear,  the  clearest  in  the  parish.  He,  better 
than  any  one  else,  should  know  the  whither,  the 
goal,  and  the  way.  The  heart  of  the  leader 
should  be  the  bravest,  so  that  he  should  never 
lose  heart  for  himself  or  his  flock.  His  heart 
should  also  be  the  most  patient  and  tender,  that 
he  should  not  lose  any  of  them  while  he  im- 
patiently and  zealously  presses  on  toward  that 
desired  haven.  You  may  well  be  the  ablest 
person  in  your  group.  You  will  need  all  the 
ability  you  have;  but  if  you  use  it  proudly,  with 
contempt  or  scorn  for  those  less  able,  then  you 
fall  far  short  of  the  ability  that  makes  a  leader. 
For  your  cooperation  as  a  leader  is  not  alone 
with  other  leaders,  able  men  like  yourselves.  It 
is  with  your  flock,  with  those  to  whom  you 
always  modestly  and  humbly  refer  as  your 
followers.  Modestly  and  humbly,  I  have  said, 
and  let  the  words  stand.  For  that  God  should 
put  us  into  this  ministry  in  a  place  of  leader- 
ship, the  leadership  of  human  life  for  Christ's 
sake,  ought  to  destroy  all  self-conceit  and 
spiritual  pride  in  us,  and  make  us  to  walk 
humbly  as  we  remember  our  real  Leader,  ever- 
more saying  of  ourselves,  "I  am  not  worthy  to 
unlatch  his  shoes,"  while  we  go  on  straightening 
paths  that  are  crooked,  and  making  smooth  the 
places  that  are  rough,  making  them  straight 

264 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  COOPERATION 

and  smooth  for  human  feet.  And  some  of  those 
we  lead  are  old,  and  some  are  lame,  and  some 
are  only  learning  to  walk,  and  no  one  of  them 
ever  went  this  way  before.  The  leadership  of 
Jesus  is  our  inspiration  and  our  model  in  this 
ministry  of  cooperation,  and  we  have  no  other. 
Secondary  models  will  not  answer. 

And  now,  as  our  frequent  manner  is,  I  flee 
from  these  more  particular  statements  to  a 
verbal  city  of  refuge  and  declare  in  a  large  and 
ample  way  that  the  ministry  of  cooperation 
roots  at  last  in  a  man's  spirit.  This  is  made  up, 
indeed,  of  many  qualities,  but  it  is  something 
other  and  more  or  less  than  their  sum.  Some 
qualities  count  for  far  more  than  others,  even 
though  all  are  valuable.  But  a  man's  spirit  is 
not  identical  with  his  particular  qualities  and 
characteristics.  Our  fathers  used  to  classify 
men  according  to  their  disposition.  Some  were 
men  of  good  disposition,  others  of  bad,  and  the 
worst  thing  to  be  said  of  a  man  was  that  he 
had  a  mean  disposition.  No  matter  what  else 
he  had,  this  was  a  fatal  characterization.  The 
men  of  good  will,  the  men  of  good  disposition, 
the  men  of  right  spirit  do  at  last  hold  the  world 
in  their  hands  for  its  salvation.  An  ugly  spirit 
may  win  temporary  victories  for  itself,  but  it 
can  win  no  victories  at  all  for  the  kingdom  of 
good  will.    The  churches  are  greatly  concerned 

265 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

about  the  men  who  are  coming  into  the  min- 
istry, concerned  about  their  ability,  wondering 
whether  they  are  equal  to  the  men  going  into 
other  callings;  concerned  about  their  motives, 
wondering  what  brings  them  into  the  ministry; 
concerned  about  their  characters,  wondering 
whether  they  are  really  men  of  God,  with  clean 
hands  and  pure  hearts;  but  the  churches  have 
no  deeper  concern  than  for  the  spirit  of  the 
men  coming  to  be  their  leaders.  Are  they  men 
of  good  will?  Is  their  ability  sustained  by  a 
spirit  that  will  make  their  ability  effective? 
Have  they  that  human  spirit  that  counts  for  so 
much,  that  spirit  the  lack  of  which  hinders  even 
the  grace  of  God  in  its  working?  Will  these 
coming  ministers,  vastly  better  than  past  or 
present  ministers  have  done,  recognize  and  unite 
with  all  the  cooperative  forces  that  work  for 
the  life  of  man,  and  all  the  cooperative  persons 
who  are  casting  out  demons  and  building  society 
in  strength  and  beauty?  Will  they  be  the  kind 
of  men  who  will  say  with  a  historic  religious 
leader:  "Is  thy  heart  herein  as  my  heart?  If  it 
be  give  me  thy  hand"?  That  is  to  say,  do  you 
love  the  things  that  I  love,  are  you  devoted 
to  the  cause  to  which  I  am  devoted,  do  you 
hate  the  things  that  I  hate,  do  you  follow  the 
Master  that  I  follow?  If  so,  let  us  join  hands, 
not  simply  shake  hands  as  a  sign  of  good  will, 

266 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  COOPERATION 

but  let  us  unite  in  the  fellowship  of  worship  and 
of  service. 

It  does  not  take  a  very  large  fly  to  spoil  the 
ointment  of  this  spirit,  or  a  very  large  fox  to  cut 
its  vine  so  that  it  will  bear  no  fruit.  A  little 
self-conceit  or  denominational  conceit  will  do  it. 
A  lack  of  genuine  humility  will  do  it.  Jealousy, 
personal  or  denominational,  will  eat  the  life  out 
of  it.  Every  year  I  bring  many  times  to  myself 
and  my  brethren  the  story  of  that  wonderful 
man  John  the  Baptist,  and  pray  that  a  double 
portion  of  his  spirit  may  fall  upon  us.  It  is  so 
easy  to  have  part  of  his  spirit,  so  easy  for  one 
man  to  recognize  the  ability  of  another  one, 
so  easy  for  one  preacher  to  praise  the  great- 
ness of  another.  It  is  a  mark  of  one's  own 
greatness  that  he  can  recognize  and  admit  the 
greatness  of  other  men  in  his  own  field.  But  it 
is  a  deeper  test  of  one's  spirit  to  recognize 
and  admit  that  other  men  are  greater  than  him- 
self in  his  own  field,  and  to  do  it  with  personal 
joy.  John  was  not  old  and  through  with  it  all, 
he  was  young  and  facing  it  all,  when  his  heart 
leaped  up  to  recognize  that  One  greater  than 
himself  had  come.  It  is  good  to  look  through 
a  soul  like  that,  without  any  mock  humility  in 
it,  with  no  fear  of  Herod  or  generosity  to  the 
vipers,  but  with  the  truest  humility  ever  seen 
on  our  planet,  in  its  recognition  of  another,  a 

267 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

neighbor,  of  his  own  age,  and  a  prophet.  Can 
you  bear  that  test,  do  you  think?  Are  you 
going  to  be  happy  or  unhappy  when  the  essence 
of  that  situation  is  repeated  in  your  own  hfe 
and  experience?  If  you  can  meet  that  test  with 
others  Hke  it,  you  may  enter  this  ministry  of 
cooperation  with  a  high  heart,  and  this  ministry 
may  receive  you  with  drums  beating  and  colors 
flying.  After  all,  the  spirit  of  your  ministry  will 
depend  upon  the  spirit  of  the  minister. 

Finally,  this  ministry  of  cooperation  will  work 
in  the  whole  world.  Nationalism  is  good  unless 
it  be  exaggerated,  self-assertive,  swollen  with 
pride.  Then  it  becomes  an  enemy  to  civiliza- 
tion and  a  curse  to  the  world,  for  "above  all 
nations  is  humanity,"  the  humanity  that  dwells 
in  large  state  and  small  one  alike,  the  humanity 
of  black  race,  yellow  race,  -and  white  race  alike. 
The  doctrine  of  human  brotherhood  is  in  a  very 
perplexing  position  in  view  of  the  war.  Our 
feeble  assertion  and  wretched  practice  of  the 
truth  of  brotherhood  is  one  of  the  fruitful 
causes  of  the  war.  The  caste  system  in  our 
practice  between  races  and  classes  has  helped 
to  make  our  testimony  feeble  and  ineffective  at 
a  point  where  it  should  have  been  strong. 
Denominationalism  is  good  unless  it  be  exag- 
gerated, intolerant,  vain,  swollen  with  spiritual 
pride  in  its  history  or  wealth,  size,  or  achieve- 

268 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  COOPERATION 

ments.  Then  it  becomes  a  menace  to  Chris- 
tianity itself,  a  bhght  upon  rehgion  instead  of  a 
blessing  in  the  name  of  religion,  for  above  all 
denominations  is  Christianity,  the  Christianity 
that  dwells  alike  in  large  denominations  and 
small,  the  Christianity  for  all  the  races,  the 
Christianity  which  is  the  master  but  not  the 
servant  of  the  denominations.  Individualism  is 
good  unless  it  be  exaggerated,  conceited,  aloof 
and  exclusive,  dwelling  apart,  intolerant  and 
bigoted.  Then  it  breaks  the  brotherhood  that 
is  in  Christ,  sets  up  false  standards  in  the  church, 
and  holds  Christianity  back  in  town  and  world. 

Against  all  these  things  set  your  faces  and 
your  hearts.  Neither  Germany,  nor  England,  nor 
America  is  to  be  over  all,  the  ruler  of  the  world. 
Neither  Anglo-Saxon,  Teuton,  Slav,  nor  Oriental 
is  to  sit  on  every  throne  and  control  the  lands  and 
seas  that  belong  to  mankind.  Neither  episcopacy 
nor  independence,  Romanism  nor  Protestantism 
is  to  have  lordship  in  the  Church  of  Christ.  Nor 
are  we  men  to  be  called  Master,  Master.  There  is 
to  be  but  one  King  over  all,  one  church  of  the 
living  God,  one  Master  of  men,  even  Christ. 

The  kingdom  of  God  in  the  whole  earth  is  the 
final  unit.  The  will  of  God  is  the  final  rule  and 
authority  in  the  earth.  For  that  through  the 
ages  we  have  prayed.  For  that  let  us  labor  and 
pray.  For  that  let  us  work  together,  together 
with  one  another  and  with  God. 

269 


LECTURE  VIII 
THE  MINISTRY  OF  INSPIRATION 

"The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me." 


LECTURE  VIII 
THE  MINISTRY  OF  INSPIRATION 

We  have  reached  our  final  hour  together,  with 
a  feehng  on  my  part  of  not  having  said  what  I 
eagerly  longed  to  say;  with  a  wish  that  I  could 
try  it  over  again  or  had  tried  to  say  something 
else;  with  the  temptation  to  attempt  in  this 
last  hour  to  make  up  for  what  was  lacking  in 
the  others.  You  will  have  this  experience  all 
through  your  ministry,  as  you  near  the  proper 
end  of  your  sermons.  If  you  yield  to  the  feeling 
you  will  plunge  and  struggle  in  a  final  effort  of 
storm  and  stress,  and  you  will  ruin  many  a 
good  conclusion  by  stretching  it  out  to  an  un- 
holy length.  Let  us  pray  now  and  always  to  be 
delivered  from  this  depressing  sensation  and  un- 
reasonable endeavor. 

I  am  wholly  aware  of  the  splendid  topics 
which  have  been  omitted  from  this  list.  You 
are  aware  of  them  yourselves.  You  can  see 
that  one  of  these  omitted  topics  is  the  Ministry 
of  Righteousness,  another  the  Ministry  of 
Power,  and  another  the  Teaching  Ministry,  to 
mention  no  more.  Why  were  they  not  included? 
Because  eight  is  eight  and  not  ten.    There  is  no 

273 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

other  reason,  except  that  a  man  is  never  wholly 
master  of  his  own  topics.  Like  a  novelist's 
characters,  they  sometimes  control  him  instead 
of  obeying  him. 

In  the  topic  for  to-day  we  swing  round  to 
the  heights  again,  with  that  other  Minister. 
We  started  there  with  him.  We  close  there 
with  him.  At  the  beginning  the  heavens 
opened  and  he  came  into  view.  At  the  end  the 
heavens  are  still  open  so  that  we  can  see  him. 
We  are  always  thinking  of  him.  Late  in  Mr. 
Lowell's  life  a  friend  found  him  studying  Dante, 
and  said:  "Ah,  Mr.  Lowell,  you  are  still  studying 
Dante,  I  see."  "Yes,"  said  the  poet,  "always 
Dante,  always  Dante."  With  us  it  is  always 
the  Master,  always  the  Master. 

Let  us  recall  again  the  fundamental  basis  of 
all  we  have  said.  If  we  had  but  one  text,  it 
would  be  this:  "The  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
like."  The  kingdom  of  this  heaven  of  our 
ministry  is  like  the  radiant  kingdom  of  his. 
The  supreme  events  in  his  history  are  both 
events  that  occurred  and  principles  that  abide, 
facts  that  were  and  principles  to  live  by.  They 
are  not  only  significant  in  themselves,  but  also 
in  what  they  have  it  in  them  to  become,  which 
is  the  real  essence  of  evolution  and  development. 

"What's  excellent  as  God  lives  is  permanent," 
not  only  as  an  indestructible  fact,  but  as  a  living 

274 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INSPIRATION 

force.  It  was  seen  to  be  so  with  the  vital 
themes  that  have  already  walked  before  us  in 
his  Person  and  ministry.  It  is  not  easy  to  live 
up  to  highest  truths  or  to  go  the  length  of 
largest  principles.  We  dread  fanaticism,  not 
seeing  that  the  deadliest  of  all  fanaticisms  is 
the  fanaticism  of  prudence,  prudence  that  is 
afraid,  the  common  sense  that  shrinks  and  fails 
to  go  up  the  heights  where  God  can  be  seen 
face  to  face.  But  our  lives  and  ministries  can 
only  be  saved  from  feebleness  and  "a  thousand 
peering  littlenesses"  by  the  power  of  an  eternal 
life,  by  fresh,  constant  contact  with  the  ever- 
lasting springs  of  great  deeds,  great  truths, 
great  principles,  great  persons,  even  the  deeds, 
the  truths,  the  principles,  and  the  Person  of  the 
Highest  himself.  Let  us  not  flinch,  or  turn 
back  now  in  the  application  of  our  fundamental 
basis.  This  basis  in  its  depth  and  reach  under- 
lies inspiration  as  it  does  incarnation  and  recon- 
ciliation. Inspiration  also  is  an  event  and  a 
principle,  a  thing  that  happened  more  than 
once  and  a  principle  that  lives  forevermore. 
It  was  an  event  for  the  men  who  spoke  as  they 
were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  They  received 
their  message  at  their  highest  from  God,  and 
gave  it  in  the  spirit  for  God.  It  was  an  event 
at  Pentecost  when  the  ancient  prophecy  was 
fulfilled  in  a  new  experience  and  promise  for 

275 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

speaking  men  and  the  life  of  man.  It  was  an 
event  in  the  life  of  Isaiah  when  his  lips  were 
touched  for  speaking,  so  that  he  spoke  with 
warmth,  with  illumination  and  with  power.  It 
was  an  event  in  the  life  of  Saint  John  when  he 
wrote,  "We  write  these  things  in  order  that 
our  joy  may  be  complete."  Why  multiply 
words  or  instances?  Inspiration  as  an  event 
we  are  ready  to  admit,  to  declare,  to  put  into 
our  creeds,  to  defend  as  part  of  our  deepest 
faith.  But  inspiration  as  a  principle  also,  a 
principle  that  lives  to  be  lived  by,  a  principle 
that  preserves  the  continuity  of  Christian  ex- 
perience and  binds  the  centuries  together,  in- 
spiration to  be  expected  and  longed  for  by 
modern  men  in  religious  work  and  speech,  in- 
spiration that  makes  the  old  inspiration  intel- 
ligible, this  is  not  so  clear  an  article  of  either 
faith  or  experience.  We  believe  in  and  are 
familiar  with  unction  and  with  earnestness,  with 
magnetism,  with  "muscular  Christianity"  and 
the  power  to  move,  but  we  are  not  so  well  ac- 
quainted with  anything  that  looks  like  inspira- 
tion. And  the  introduction  of  this  subject 
seems  to  our  good  sense  to  open  a  fair  way  to 
mysticism,  fanaticism,  and  even  heresy.  We 
easily  see  the  threatening  shadows  of  religious 
extravagance,  and  hear  the  names  of  well- 
known   groups   of   spiritual   specialists.     Very 

276 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INSPIRATION 

well;  I  am  not  going  to  be  diverted  from  an 
effort  to  find  a  right  road  because  there  are 
wrong  ones.  There  is  a  truth  here  which  is 
worth  hunting  for,  a  coin  that  has  a  lot  of 
counterfeits  because  the  real  coin  is  so  valuable. 
And  this  truth  needs  to  be  found.  The  age  is 
not  dying  of  too  much  real  inspiration  or  spirit- 
ual life.  The  church  is  not  too  strong  in  a  gen- 
uine strength  begotten  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  has 
lots  of  might  of  other  kinds,  lots  of  power  of 
other  sorts,  upon  which  it  tends  to  rely.  "Every 
church,"  says  Hutton,  "just  now  is  living  too 
much  by  its  wits.  Never  did  men  in  office  in 
the  church  work  harder.  Never  were  church 
buildings  so  constantly  in  use.  Never  were 
appeals  more  insistent.  Yet,  at  the  best,  *hav- 
ing  done  all,  we  stand.'  Such  success  as  the 
churches  may  claim  is  not  of  the  highest  pos- 
sible quality;  it  is  too  much  fretted  with  anxiety 
and  labor.  It  wants  certain  notes  of  peace,  of 
fullness,  of  that  confidence  in  God  which  has  the 
victory  over  the  world.  It  has  a  basis  of  worry 
and  strain.  It  has  enough  to  do  with  itself." 
Mr.  Gladstone's  sober  words  are  not  cheerful 
reading:  "I  am  rather  painfully  impressed  with 
the  apprehension  that  the  seen  world  is  gaining 
upon  the  unseen.  The  vast  expansion  of  its 
apparatus  seems  to  have  nothing  to  balance  it. 
The  church,  which  was  the  appointed  instrument 

277 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

of  the  world's  recovery,  seems,  taking  all  its 
branches  together,  rather  unequal  to  its  work." 

The  ministry  is  not  too  inspiring  or  too 
spiritual;  its  work  is  not  overmuch  in  demon- 
stration of  the  Spirit  and  of  power.  No  matter 
whether  it  is  more  or  less  so  than  ever  before,  it 
is  not  enough  so  at  this  hour.  It  has  eloquence, 
scholarship,  and  ability,  magnetism  and  perfect 
elocution;  it  is  filled  with  intense  desire  to  do 
good;  its  men  wear  themselves  out  trying  to  lift 
and  move  people  whose  hearts  have  waxed 
gross;  it  is  strong  and  faithful  in  the  denuncia- 
tion of  evil  personal  and  social.  But  there  are 
too  many  sermons  that  have  not  a  thrill  in 
them,  the  ministry  does  not  sufficiently  speak 
with  a  power  not  its  own,  it  has  not  the  light  of 
the  Eternal  on  its  face,  it  is  not  caught  up  into 
any  heaven  while  it  speaks,  it  does  not  set  the 
breezes  of  another  world  blowing  over  men's 
spirits.  The  real  way  is  worth  finding  if  our 
ministry  is  to  do  its  part  in  "keeping  the  soul 
of  the  world  alive." 

What,  then,  do  we  mean  by  a  ministry  of 
inspiration?  How  can  it  be  obtained  or  created? 
How  can  it  be  preserved?  And  what  will  it  do 
in  the  world?  Free  from  all  fanaticism  and  ex- 
travagance we  sincerely  desire  this  kind  of  min- 
istry. In  answering  these  questions  let  us  not 
expect  or  attempt  exact  definitions.    They  are 

278 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INSPIRATION 

the  peril  and  the  pitfall  of  much  religious  dis- 
cussion. Here,  as  in  other  high  matters,  we 
shall  get  our  best  definitions,  not  in  terms  of  the 
dictionary,  but  in  terms  of  personal  life.  The 
person  will  define  the  term,  and  in  a  person  the 
term  will  define  itself.  We  shall  best  under- 
stand the  thing  by  seeing  it  in  personal  action. 

What,  then,  do  we  mean  by  a  ministry  of  in- 
spiration? Here,  as  everywhere,  our  concep- 
tions and  definitions  should  emerge  at  the 
highest  levels,  in  the  life  of  the  best  we  know. 
What,  then,  did  it  mean  in  the  case  of  that 
other  Minister.^  With  every  allowance  for  what 
was  unique  and  individual  in  him,  we  are  more 
concerned  to  find  what  may  be  common  to  his 
life  and  ours.  We  ought  not  to  be  related  to 
him  solely  or  chiefly  in  the  fact  that  he  was 
tempted  in  all  points  as  we  are.  That  is  not 
the  best  level.  He  was  an  inspiring  person,  in 
ways  that  do  not  seem  magical,  magnetic,  or 
unnatural.  This  life  of  his  in  the  heart  of  it 
looks  like  the  proper,  best  way  to  build  a  per- 
sonality. If  we  can  find  the  secret  of  his  life, 
we  shall  be  well  into  the  secret  of  our  own. 
Inspiration  in  him  does  not  seem  to  be  just  a 
divine  afflatus,  a  lofty  emotion,  or  the  gift  of 
infallibility.  We  have  thought  of  it  rather  too 
much  as  the  power  that  brings  infallibility  rather 
than  the  gift  that  brings  life  and  vitality,  spirit- 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

ual  insight,  sensitiveness  to  truth  and  beauty, 
elevation  of  mind  and  heart,  and  responsiveness 
to  God's  spirit.  It  goes  far  deeper  than  any  one 
thing  or  any  partial  experience.  How,  then, 
was  it  obtained  by  him.^^  He  surely  was  an 
inspiring  personality,  as  every  personality  must 
be  by  reason  of  his  constant,  perfect,  unbroken 
contact  with  God.  There  is  no  element  of  magic 
in  it.  It  does  not  come  upon  men  regardless, 
but  upon  the  men  who  meet  the  conditions  and 
pay  the  price.  It  is  not  lawless  and  capricious 
in  its  working,  or  in  its  coming,  nor  an  arbitrary 
gift  bestowed  upon  a  chosen  few.  He  never  lost 
it.  Such  statements  as  "The  words  that  I 
speak  unto  you,  they  are  spirit,  and  they  are 
life,"  "The  Father  that  dwelleth  in  me,  he 
doeth  the  works,"  carry  us  far.  This  is  not 
simply  an  occasional  outpouring  upon  his  life, 
or  spirit  breathed  into  it  once  in  a  while;  this 
shows  a  divine  relation  and  a  steady  divine 
presence.  We  do  not  think  it  extravagant  to 
say  that  he  lived  his  life  with  God  and  in  God, 
as  he  received  it  from  God.  We  do  not  think  it 
extravagant  when  Saint  Paul  says:  "The  life 
which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh  I  live  by  the  faith 
of  the  Son  of  God."  Why  are  we  so  afraid  to  go 
the  length  of  our  best  truths.'*  Arthur  Brooks, 
speaking  of  his  brother,  Phillips  Brooks,  said : 
"God  be  praised  to-day!    From  God  he  came; 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  INSPIRATION 

with  God  he  walked;  God's  world  he  loved; 
God's  children  he  helped;  God's  church  he  led; 
God's  blessed  Son  he  followed;  God's  nearness 
he  enjoyed;  with  God  he  dwells."  This  branch 
lived  and  bloomed  and  bore  fruit,  as  all  branches 
must  and  will,  by  reason  of  the  perfect  union 
with  the  sufficient  source  of  life.  No  life  can  be 
spiritual,  can  be  inspired  or  inspiring,  that  does 
not  dwell  in  God,  that  does  not  have  him 
dwelling  in  it.  The  leaven  must  be  in  the  meal, 
the  meal  must  be  transformed  by  the  leaven. 
What  one  personality  can  do  with  another  we 
have  not  begun  to  measure.  We  have  been  in 
bondage  to  materialistic,  mechanistic  or  pietistic 
standards  and  processes.  What  God  can  do  in 
nature  and  with  nature  we  are  only  beginning  to 
see,  to  see  as  we  get  rid  of  certain  false  views 
of  his  relation  to  nature  and  the  character 
of  natural  forces.  But  what  the  divine  life 
can  do  in  the  realm  of  human  personality, 
this  we  have  seen  once,  and  the  vision  makes 
us  long  to  see  it  again.  We  have  seen  once 
what  happens  when  a  personality  perfectly 
gives  itself  up  to  be  invested  and  invaded 
by  God,  when  his  personality  finds  another 
that  makes  perfect  response  to  it.  It  is 
vastly  more  than  the  contagion  of  goodness 
or  the  thrill  of  a  noble  example.  This  is  crea- 
tive energy  that  makes  such  new  creatures  that 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

that  other  Minister  can  say  to  them,  "Nothing 
shall  be  impossible  to  you";  that  makes  one  of 
them  say  soberly,  "It  is  God  that  worketh  in 
us."  For  him  as  for  all  the  supreme  souls  in  our 
ministerial  ancestry,  inspiration  is  an  experience, 
a  fellowship,  an  everlasting  communion  which 
for  him  and  all  others  makes  their  ministry 
sufficient. 

The  wealth,  the  character,  and  the  use  of  his 
truth  made  another  vital  element  in  his  inspira- 
tion. His  lips  were  touched  with  a  live  coal,  but 
they  were  lips  worth  touching.  They  could 
stand  live  coals.  He  was  baptized  with  fire, 
but  the  fire  fell  upon  abundant  fuel.  Many 
men  pray  for  fire,  divine  fire,  to  descend  upon 
them  when  they  have  no  fuel  that  would  give 
divine  fire  a  chance  to  warm  the  world  even  if 
it  did  fall  upon  them.  Many  men  gather  fuel 
all  their  lives,  great  stacks  of  it,  libraries  full, 
heads  full,  manuscripts  full,  and  never  let  any 
divine  fire  get  anywhere  near  it.  They  keep  it 
properly  piled  in  regular  order,  sheltered  and 
protected,  exhibited  and  seasoned;  or  they  just 
let  it  pile  up  in  any  kind  of  order  or  disorder, 
but  no  conflagration  ever  gets  into  it.  It  re- 
mains wood,  wood  to  the  end  of  time,  never 
becoming  warmth,  never  blazing  with  the  di- 
vine flame,  never  leaving  a  deposit  of  ashes  to 
show  where  once  fire  and  fuel  got  together.    Or 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  INSPIRATION 

men  gather  just  one  kind  of  fuel,  and  that 
never  makes  the  best  kind  of  a  fire.  We  used  to 
mix  the  beech,  hard  maple,  oak,  and  hickory 
when  we  wanted  a  fire  at  its  best.  But  the 
whole  purpose  of  getting  fuel  together  is  not  to 
have  great  piles  of  fuel,  but  that  the  chill  shall 
be  taken  off  the  atmosphere  of  the  world  and 
the  food  of  the  world  be  cooked.  Fire  and  fuel 
must  get  together.  When  shall  we  take  a  true 
view  of  our  truth?  When  shall  we  think  of  it  as 
Jesus  thought  of  his?  When  shall  we  prize  it 
for  what  it  will  do?  For  this  is  what  makes 
truth  valuable,  not  that  it  is  abundant  or  ad- 
mirable, but  that  it  is  useful  in  setting  men  free. 
Not  the  academic  regard  for  truth,  but  the 
evangelistic  use  of  it  is  our  ideal.  This  made 
Jesus  inspiring.  He  had  the  truths,  all  the 
truths,  that  released  life,  set  forces  free,  and 
transformed  character.  The  ministry  always 
bears  a  feeble  witness  when  its  grasp  upon  truth 
is  feeble  or  narrow  or  partial,  or  when  it  only 
has  hold  of  one  kind.  Its  witness  is  always 
feeble  when  its  chief  concern  is  for  its  truth,  to 
possess  it,  to  save  it  or  to  display  it.  Such 
preaching  is  always  sounding  brass  and  tinkling 
cymbals,  preaching  without  any  reach  into  life 
or  any  overwhelming  hold  upon  life.  A  ministry 
with  a  feeble  or  narrow  or  partial  truth  can 
dazzle,  can  even  blind  men  and  deceive  them  as 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

when  one  builds  a  bonfire  of  tissue  paper,  ex- 
celsior, shavings,  hay,  or  stubble.  But  the 
ministry  that  inspires  is  the  ministry  that  takes 
the  supreme  truths  of  life,  of  God's  life  and 
man's  life,  and  plants  them  as  living  forces  in 
the  minds,  the  emotions,  and  the  wills  of  men; 
the  truths  that  open  the  heavens  above  men's 
heads  and  steady  the  earth  beneath  their  feet. 
Little  preaching  of  thin  truth,  noisy  preaching 
of  shallow  truth,  conceited  preaching  of  showy 
truth  will  not  do  this.  Men  are  inspired  more 
by  the  walking  of  a  living  truth  before  them 
than  by  any  sensuous  appeal  to  emotion. 
Moved  they  may  be  by  the  thing  that  is  mov- 
ing; moved  they  may  be  by  a  contagion  of  en- 
thusiasm, or  by  magnetism,  by  elocution,  but 
they  are  inspired  when  supreme  truth  lays 
hold  of  their  minds,  stirs  their  souls  and  carries 
their  wills  into  action.  Lots  of  preaching  makes 
men  think,  lots  of  it  makes  men  feel,  some  of  it 
makes  men  act,  but  the  preaching  that  inspires 
does  all  of  this  in  logical,  living  order. 

Take  the  story  of  what  happened  at  Pente- 
cost. We  may  as  well  look  at  it  here  as  later. 
The  Spirit  was  upon  that  preacher,  that  fisher- 
man of  the  common  clay.  He  had  the  contact 
with  the  divine  source  of  sufficiency  and  power. 
In  the  Spirit  he  told  the  whole  splendid  story  of 
Jesus.    That  story  was  his  truth.    If  you  think 

284 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INSPIRATION 

telling  it  is  intellectually  easy,  try  it.  If  you 
want  to  stretch  what  brains  you  have,  try 
preaching  Christ.  That  is  the  supreme  intel- 
lectual achievement.  You  have  the  whole  story 
here:  the  Spirit  of  God  in  one  preaching  man, 
the  rich,  full  truth  spoken  by  that  man,  then 
the  Spirit  of  God  falling  upon  the  hstening  men 
until  they  understood  one  another,  until  they 
had  a  new  sense  of  God,  were  moved  by  a 
flaming  passion  for  the  common  good  and  be- 
came brothers  with  a  common  stock  of  goods. 
That  story  is  not  a  lesson  in  doctrine  or  eco- 
nomics, but  a  thrilling  chapter  in  the  history  of 
preaching.  Sit  down  with  it  until  you  are 
saturated  with  it,  and  maybe  that  which  was 
spoken  by  Joel  will  come  to  pass  again,  for 
Pentecost  is  also  an  event  and  a  principle,  a 
thing  that  happened  and  a  thing  that  happens 
when  God  has  his  way  with  men.  It  is  easy  to 
get  the  shallow,  surface  view  of  it  and  to  vapor 
it  away  as  the  unthinking  bystanders  tried  to 
with  their  silly  talk  about  it.  But  I  say  to  you 
that  the  preaching  of  our  day,  like  the  preaching 
of  Peter  on  that  great  and  notable  day,  must  be 
in  the  same  spirit,  must  use  this  same  supreme 
truth  that  is  in  Jesus  Christ,  so  that  world  con- 
fusion will  become  world  understanding,  racial 
confusion  become  racial  harmony  among  the 
dwellers  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  so  that  the 

285 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

godless  selfishness  that  godlessly  says,  "This  is 
my  stuff,"  will  quit  saying  that  and  begin  to  say, 
"These  are  my  brothers,  and  the  stuff  is  ours." 
This  is  the  dream  that  old  men  dream,  this  the 
vision  that  young  men  see.  And  nothing  will 
bring  it  to  pass  again  but  the  kind  of  preaching 
that  once  brought  it  to  pass.  The  men  who  do 
this  supreme  thing  must  have  the  spirit  and 
the  far-reaching  truth  that  centers  in  Jesus. 
Pulpits  without  the  spirit  and  without  the  liv- 
ing truth  will  be  useless  and  helpless  in  the  face 
of  the  modern  world,  which  is  the  ancient  world 
emphasized.  The  word  that  is  void  and  lifeless 
in  its  utterance  returns  void  to  its  source.  Re- 
ligious conditions,  racial  conditions,  moral  con- 
ditions, material  conditions  as  they  were  that 
day  at  Pentecost  are  so  suggestive  of  modern 
conditions  that  the  story  lays  hold  of  thoughtful 
men  like  a  prophecy.  In  all  its  features  Pente- 
cost looks  like  an  event  and  a  principle,  like  a 
thing  that  occurred  and  a  principle  that  lives. 
It  called  then,  it  calls  now,  for  a  ministry  ade- 
quate through  inspiration  with  sufficient  spirit 
and  with  potent  truth. 

His  possession  of  truth  and  his  use  of  truth 
both  make  him  a  minister  of  inspiration.  There 
ought  to  be  an  extra  classification  of  men  based 
upon  the  way  they  use  the  truth  they  have. 
Instantly  you  will  think  of  the  men  who  use 

286 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INSPIRATION 

their  truth  in  vulgar  display,  of  the  men  who 
use  it  for  their  own  advantage  or  profit,  of  the 
men  who  use  it  for  purposes  of  rebuke  and  de- 
nunciation, of  the  men  who  use  truth  as  the 
basis  of  argument  and  controversy,  to  name  no 
others.  Or  you  think  of  the  artist's  use,  the 
philosopher's  use,  the  scientist's  use,  the  mer- 
chant's use  of  truth.  Not  all  of  it  is  improper, 
of  course,  but  not  any  of  it  is  on  the  same  level 
with  Jesus's  use  of  truth,  not  any  of  it  inspires 
as  his  use  does.  With  the  purpose  of  redemp- 
tion ruling  his  life  he  used  truth  ever  for  life's 
sake,  ever  to  set  life  free  and  to  make  life  holy. 
No  truth  was  too  precious  for  such  use;  indeed,  it 
was  precious  only  because  of  such  use.  No  life 
was  too  lowly  to  be  lifted  by  the  truth  that 
came  out  of  the  skies.  What  he  said  to  Nicode- 
mus,  to  the  woman  at  the  well,  or  to  poor 
Zacchseus  was  not  simply  the  statement  of  a 
doctrine.  It  was  the  sure  bringing  of  supremest 
truth  to  neediest  life  for  life's  sake.  It  was  a 
thrilling  lesson  in  the  ministry  of  redemption. 
An  English  journalist  says  of  an  English  arch- 
bishop: "He  is  an  embodied  office.  You  never 
catch  him  without  the  lawn  sleeves.  You  never 
surprise  him  out  of  the  clerical  and  courtly  ac- 
cent." Well,  that  other  Minister  is  an  em- 
bodied Redeemer.  You  never  catch  him  with- 
out the  cross  and  the  word  of  redemption.    You 

287 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

never  surprise  him  out  of  the  redeeming  accent. 
We  are  so  careless,  so  reckless,  in  our  use  of  our 
highest  truths.  We  do  not  speak  falsely,  of 
course,  but  we  are  too  easily  caught  out  of 
character.  The  ministry  must  bear  the  double 
test  of  inspiration — the  possession  of  truth  and 
the  use  of  truth — even  as  his  ministry  did. 

His  ministry  was  a  ministry  of  inspiration,  as 
ours  must  be  by  reason  of  the  consecration  of 
his  life  to  the  things  he  had  to  do.  This  con- 
stitutes "the  breed  of  noble  blood";  not  clever- 
ness, nor  energy,  nor  talent,  but  this  divine, 
unhesitating,  unresting  consecration.  This  alone 
lights  the  lamps  that  burn  with  strong  and 
steady  flame.  This  is  religious  genius,  respond- 
ing to  the  murmurs  and  agonies  of  men.  "Know- 
ing whence  he  came,"  fully  conscious  of  his  an- 
cestry; "knowing  whither  he  went,"  fully  aware 
of  his  destiny,  he  girded  himself  and  washed  the 
feet  of  the  weary  and  travel- worn.  Heredity  is 
an  inspiring  thing,  not  when  it  is  asserted,  but 
when  in  such  ways  it  is  consecrated.  Destiny 
is  glorious,  not  when  it  is  exhibited  in  vanity, 
but  when  it  is  set  to  service.  Long  ago  the 
prophet  drew  the  picture  of  a  person  like  this: 
"A  man  shall  be  as  an  hiding  place  from  the 
wind,  and  a  covert  from  the  tempest;  as  rivers 
of  water  in  a  dry  place,  as  the  shadow  of  a  great 
rock  in  a  weary  land."    Then  in  a  single  life, 

288 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INSPIRATION 

full,  true,  complete  manhood  walked  across  the 
wide  world  in  such  devotion  and  service  that 
the  spoken  word  became  a  living  word  before 
men's  eyes.  This  also  was  an  event  and  a 
principle;  an  event  in  one  life,  a  principle  for 
all  life.  He  did  not  look  for  inspiring  people  to 
work  with,  inspiring  congregations  to  preach  to. 
He  brought  his  life,  his  words,  his  deeds  to  the 
dull,  the  hard,  the  sodden,  and  the  uninspiring; 
and  when  unbelief  blocked  his  way  he  went 
away  heavy-hearted.  When  poor  John  the 
Baptist  got  all  mixed  up  on  a  question  of  the 
evidences  of  Christianity,  bothered  almost  to 
death  about  a  question  of  apologetics,  Jesus 
sent  him  word  something  like  this:  "I  know 
whence  I  came.  I  know  whither  I  go.  Inspira- 
tion and  divine  origins  are  not  matters  of  argu- 
ment, but  of  experience  and  demonstration.  The 
blind  are  receiving  their  sight,  John;  the  lame 
are  walking,  lepers  are  being  cleansed,  the  deaf 
are  hearing  the  voices  of  their  friends,  the  dead 
are  being  raised  up,  and  the  poor,  the  outcasts, 
have  good  news  preached  to  them.  Doubt  no 
more." 

He  does  not  prove  his  deity  by  asserting  it, 
even  in  such  words  as  "I  and  my  Father  are 
one,"  but  by  keeping  perfect  step  with  God  in 
the  service  of  mankind,  by  daily  showing  that 
he  can  do  and  will  do  the  things  that  God  is 

289 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

doing.     And  this  both  proves  and  reveals  his 
deity. 

And  that  other  Minister  made  an  atmosphere 
of  consecration  just  as  some  men  make  an  at- 
mosphere of  behef,  others  an  atmosphere  of 
doubt,  others  an  atmosphere  of  benevolence,  and 
others  still  an  atmosphere  of  skepticism  and 
selfishness.  It  was  said  of  General  Kleber  that 
it  made  men  brave  just  to  look  at  him.  It  was 
said  of  another:  "His  very  presence  had  power 
to  carry  happiness  to  hearts  that  were  heavy. 
It  was  a  dull,  rainy  day  when  things  looked 
dark  and  lowering,  but  Phillips  Brooks  came 
down  Newspaper  Row  and  all  was  bright."  It 
was  said  of  a  recent  American  novelist  that  the 
young  men  and  women  of  his  time  lived  with 
happier  bravery  because  of  him.  Maclaren 
says  that  when  Henry  Drummond  entered  a 
room  his  presence  seemed  to  change  the  tem- 
perature. Jesus  created  an  atmosphere  of  rap- 
turous consecration.  "I  must  be  about  my 
Father's  business."  "My  meat  is  to  do  the 
will  of  him  that  sent  me."  "I  do  always 
those  things  that  please  him."  These  are 
not  the  sentences  of  a  man  boasting.  These 
are  the  words  of  a  man  describing  his  life  and 
its  principles.  He  does  not  talk  of  consecration 
much.  He  holds  no  special  meetings  for  it.  It 
is  not  occasional  or  special  with  him.    It  is  the 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  INSPIRATION 

basis  of  his  entire  life.  And  I  see  no  way  to 
take  any  other  view  of  life  except  to  take  a 
lower  view.  You  can  do  that  if  you  will.  You 
can  cut  the  heart  out  of  his  influence  upon  you 
by  dropping  to  a  lower  plane.  But  you  take  all 
the  meaning  out  of  such  words  as  these  when 
you  do  not  live  clear  up  to  them.  "I  am  come 
that  they  might  have  life."  "He  that  believeth 
on  the  Son  hath  everlasting  life."  One  man 
gives  himself  to  another.  The  power  and  cour- 
age, the  faith  and  hope  of  one  pass  into  another. 
That  is  the  way  he  gives  us  life.  That  makes 
his  life  inspiring  again,  as  when  God  breathed 
into  man  and  he  ceased  to  be  a  dull,  lifeless 
thing  and  became  a  living  soul.  And  like  that 
in  its  essence  a  consecrated  life  always  works. 
You  cannot  give  what  you  have  not  got.  You 
cannot  create  consecration  unless  you  have  con- 
secration. You  cannot  cause  men  to  do  their 
best  unless  you  live  at  your  best.  Learning  will 
not  do  it.  Eloquence  will  not  do  it.  Even 
brilliant  deeds  will  not  do  it.  Life  giving  is  in 
the  hands  of  life  possessors.  We  have  seen 
such  men.  We  know  such  men,  in  large  groups 
and  small  ones.  They  bring  vitality,  they  create 
it.  They  bring  consecration,  they  create  it. 
They  bring  the  inspiration  of  perfect  devotion, 
glad  and  rapturous.  They  create  it  because 
they  have  it. 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

The  ministry  of  that  other  Minister  was  in- 
spiring because  of  his  personality.  This  was 
his  supreme  gift  to  men.  It  is  the  supreme 
achievement.  You  may  think  this  is  dangerous 
ground.  It  is,  but  it  is  chiefly  dangerous  ground 
to  keep  away  from.  I  do  not  forget  how  Horace 
Bushnell,  for  apologetic  purposes,  declared  that 
"the  character  of  Jesus  forbids  his  possible  clas- 
sification with  men,"  but  there  is  another  apolo- 
getic also  in  the  words  "the  imitableness  of 
Christ's  character."  We  exalt  him  not  by 
setting  him  apart,  even  though  we  set  him  on 
high.  We  crown  him  when  we  set  him  within, 
when  we  have  him  formed  in  us,  when  we  put 
him  on  as  a  garment.  Of  course,  we  cannot 
expect  to  possess  sinlessness  like  his,  but  by 
grace  we  may  expect  and  achieve  sanctity  even 
like  his,  for  what  he  achieved  was  as  regal  as 
what  he  possessed  by  inheritance.  And  we  are 
always  more  concerned  with  our  resemblances 
to  him  than  with  our  differences  from  him.  We 
make  constant  allowance  for  what  was  unique 
in  him,  but  even  as  we  do  it  we  draw  as  close 
as  we  can  that  we  may  be  renewed  in  the  same 
image.  What  was  good  in  him  cannot  be  bad 
in  us. 

Now,  character  and  personality  are  not  vague 
terms.  Character  is  something  more  than  char- 
acteristics,   personality    something   more   than 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  INSPIRATION 

qualities.  But  character  is  made  up  of  charac- 
teristics and  personality  is  made  up  of  qualities. 
Many  writers  have  analyzed  that  other  Min- 
ister. Here  is  one  list,  which  could  be  matched 
by  others:  "The  characteristics  of  Jesus  are 
strength,  sincerity,  reasonableness,  poise,  orig- 
inality, narrowness,  breadth,  trust,  brotherli- 
ness,  optimism,  chivalry,  firmness,  generosity, 
candor,  enthusiasm,  gladness,  humility,  pa- 
tience, courage,  indignation,  reverence,  holiness, 
and  greatness."  And  personality,  says  another, 
is  made  up  of  four  qualities,  "consciousness  of 
self,  consciousness  of  power,  consciousness  of 
obligation,  consciousness  of  determination."  It 
says,  "I  am,  I  can,  I  ought,  I  will."  The  list  is 
pretty  long,  but  might  easily  be  longer.  And  each 
of  these  qualities  is  good  when  combined  with 
all  the  others.  The  absence  of  any  one  of  them 
would  not  make  a  better  character.  Nor  would 
it  help  any  to  let  any  one  of  these  characteristics 
get  top-heavy.  Character  and  civilization  both 
go  wrong  when  one  element  dominates  all  the 
rest.  And  if  these  qualities  were  all  good  in 
him,  would  they  not  be  equally  good  in  us.'^  No 
wonder  he  was  an  inspiring  personality,  being 
this  kind.  No  wonder  so  many  of  us  are  so 
uninspiring,  not  being  this  kind  in  any  large 
measure.  Most  of  us  have  some  of  these  char- 
acteristics, but  lack  the  others.     Some  of  us 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

have  faith,  but  not  much  goodness;  some  have 
goodness,  and  not  much  knowledge;  some  have 
knowledge,  accurate  and  encyclopedic,  but  not 
much  self-control.  Some  have  self-control,  but 
not  much  brotherly  affection;  and  some  have 
brotherly  affection — they  are  good  fellows — but 
not  much  love.  So  on  you  can  go.  Jesus  is  the 
living  definition  of  the  kind  of  manhood  that  in- 
spires manhood,  character  that  inspires  and 
creates  character,  a  ministry  of  inspiration  not 
because  of  some  magical  or  magnetic  quality, 
but  because  of  that  kind  of  character  which  by 
God's  grace  and  power  enables  us  to  say,  "Now 
are  we  the  sons  of  God."  The  roots  of  his  life 
ran  back  to  God,  the  fruit  of  his  life  came  from 
God,  the  flower  of  it  came  out  in  consecration  and 
character.  Have  I  made  my  meaning  clear.?  Do 
we  see  what  made  his  life  inspiring,  so  that  we 
also  see  what  makes  any  life  inspiring?  Its 
contact  with  God;  its  source  and  deepest  root 
in  God;  its  vital  possession  and  redemptive  use 
of  truth,  the  truth  as  it  was  in  Jesus  Christ, 
the  truth  that  sets  men  free;  its  eternal  conse- 
cration to  the  will  of  God  and  the  weal  of  the 
world,  and,  finally,  its  likeness  to  God  in  all 
those  qualities  that  make  in  any  world  or  any 
age,  that  make  in  any  person,  divine  or  human, 
a  perfect  character  and  an  inspiring  personality. 
I  am  not  thinking  much  of  the  life  to  come,  but 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  INSPIRATION 

am  appealing  to  you  to  "pitch  this  one  high." 
I  have  not  argued  for  the  deity  of  Jesus,  though 
it  is  the  center  and  strength  of  my  Hfe  and  faith, 
but  am  crying  out  to  you, 

"Ah,  let  us  try 
If  we  then  too  can  be  such  men  as  he." 

For  this  is  our  assurance:  "In  him  we  live,  and 
move,  and  have  our  being,"  and 

"God's  greatness  flows  round  our  incompleteness. 
Round  our  restlessness,  his  rest.** 

How  does  one  keep  on  being  inspiring  .^^  The 
preservation  of  a  noble  quality  is  quite  as  im- 
portant as  the  getting  of  it.  Even  our  best 
possessions  deteriorate,  our  highest  experiences 
become  stale,  unless  they  are  used  aright.  Holi- 
ness itself  becomes  rancid  when  it  is  treated 
exclusively  as  a  personal  experience  or  emotion. 
It  saves  itself  by  becoming  righteousness  which 
is  holiness  in  action,  holiness  at  work,  holiness 
healing  lepers,  opening  blind  eyes  and  washing 
disciples'  feet.  The  branches  that  do  not  bear 
have  to  be  cut  off  at  last,  bearing  being  the  con- 
dition of  retaining  the  connection  with  the 
source  of  life.  One  keeps  on  being  inspired  and 
inspiring  by  making  the  outflow  of  spiritual  life 
and  power  equal  at  least  to  the  intake,  by  keep- 
ing the  means  and  the  ends  of  experience  in 
proper  balance,  by  the  use  he  makes  of  the 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

qualities  that  inspire  him.  Services  must  always 
equal  visions  if  visions  are  to  continue  to  any 
man.  This  thing  cannot  be  had  once  for  all  and 
kept  indefinitely,  no  matter  where  it  is  put  or 
how  it  is  kept.  It  will  not  keep  if  kept  sealed, 
in  a  cool  place.  It  must  always  be  kept  open, 
in  places  warm  with  human  life.  We  have  no 
tragedies  sadder  or  more  tragic  than  the  trag- 
edies of  lost  inspirations,  real  "lights  that 
failed."  They  were  genuine  and  large  once  in 
the  lives  of  certain  men  in  our  ministry.  Then 
those  ministries  became  commercialized,  or 
spoiled  by  prosperity,  or  soured  by  adversity,  or 
stifled  with  worldliness,  or  honeycombed  by  per- 
sonal evil,  or  weakened  by  age,  and  the  inspira- 
tion ceased.  The  men  went  on  using  the  words 
they  once  had  used,  but  no  longer  with  power 
over  life.  For  you  can  speak  with  the  tongues 
of  men  and  angels  and  still  make  nothing  but  a 
noise  in  the  world. 

Nor  is  this  a  thing  you  can  have  for  occasional 
use.  Some  sermons  will  be  better  than  others, 
some  occasions  more  notable  than  others,  but 
the  qualities  that  make  you  a  minister  of  in- 
spiration cannot  be  put  on  and  off  at  will,  used 
lavishly  before  great  congregations  and  with- 
held from  small  ones,  poured  out  upon  inspiring 
gatherings  and  reserved  from  the  assemblies  that 
are  wholly  uninspiring.     A  minister  keeps  his 

296 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INSPIRATION 

inspiration  by  the  words  he  speaks,  by  the  deeds 
he  performs,  by  the  spirit  he  hves  in  and  lives 
out,  by  the  way  he  meets  all  life's  experiences, 
the  so-called  common  and  the  so-called  ex- 
traordinary, the  raging,  overwhelming  crises  of 
temptation  and  the  small,  ugly,  subtle,  nibbling 
at  his  moral  life  which  goes  on  unsuspected  by 
all  save  himself.  Peter's  inspiration  was  clear 
at  Pentecost,  and  slipped  in  the  presence  of  a 
simple  maid  in  the  hour  of  his  Master's  trial. 
The  slipping  is  not  a  lovely  spectacle  in  his  life 
or  any  other. 

Open  and  reread  again  the  story  of  one  or  two 
incidents  in  that  other  Minister's  life.  Take 
the  scene  of  his  baptism.  Down  into  the  his- 
toric river  he  went  to  fulfill  every  religious  duty 
and  to  observe  the  proper  religious  sacraments. 
Others  had  done  it,  he  would  do  it,  to  set  his 
life  in  closest  relation  with  theirs  by  every 
possible  act.  And  he  was  baptized  of  water. 
And  the  heavens  opened,  and  the  Spirit  de- 
scended and  the  voice  said:  "This  is  my  Son, 
dearly  loved,  in  whom  I  delight."  At  the 
transfiguration  the  heavens  opened  again  and 
the  voice  said,  "Thou  art  my  son,  in  whom  I 
am  well  pleased."  By  riverside  and  on  moun- 
tain top,  to  him  and  to  others  of  him,  those 
words  were  spoken.  And  I  cannot  doubt  that 
in  many  other  hours  they  were  repeated  to  him, 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

in  hours  when  he  needed  this  assurance.  For 
he  did  not  lose  the  testimony  that  he  pleased 
God.  Do  you  see,  need  I  go  on?  ^'He  will 
baptize  you  not  many  days  hence,"  and  you 
will  hear  in  your  inmost  soul  those  words 
spoken  to  him  when  the  heavens  opened.  For 
you  cannot  go  on  into  this  ministry  or  in  this 
ministry  with  inspiration  unless  the  Spirit  comes 
upon  you  also,  unless  you  also  know  that  you  are 
well-loved  sons  of  God.  How  can  you  make 
known  to  other  men,  to  men  in  every  land,  their 
sonship  in  Jesus  Christ  unless  you  have  entered 
into  his  experience  with  him  and  know  your- 
selves to  have  true  sonship?  How  are  you  going 
to  fight  wild  beasts  at  Ephesus,  cast  out  demons, 
climb  shining  heights  to  see  God  face  to  face 
unless  you  also  shall  be  reassured  again  and 
again  that  you  are  God's  sons  and  that  he  cares 
for  you?  This  also  is  an  event  and  a  principle 
in  the  far,  deep,  personal  reaches  of  it. 

Baptized,  not  to  ecstasy,  not  to  religious  rap- 
ture, but  to  his  public  ministry  and  personal  life, 
he  goes  almost  at  once  into  the  wilderness  to 
have  it  out  with  the  tempter  of  his  life  and  ours. 
Carlyle  put  it  thus:  "To  me  nothing  seems  more 
natural  than  that  the  Son  of  man  ....  should 
be  carried  of  the  Spirit  into  grim  solitudes,  and 
there  fronting  the  tempter  do  grimmest  battle 
with  him.  .  .  .  Name  it  as  we  choose,  with  or 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  INSPIRATION 

without  visible  devil,  whether  in  the  wilderness 
or  populous  moral  desert  of  selfishness  and  base- 
ness— to  such  temptation  as  we  are  all  called." 
If  you  read  this  story  with  your  hearts,  you 
will  be  shouting  before  you  are  through.  It  is 
peculiarly  and  preeminently  a  picture  of  per- 
sonal experience  for  us  minister  men.  Hardly 
anything  in  Jesus's  whole  life  is  more  truly 
both  event  and  principle  than  his  experience 
there  in  the  wilderness,  where  he  fought  out  for 
himself  and  for  us  at  least  three  fundamental 
issues.  These  are  not  temptations  to  vulgar, 
low-down  evil.  These  are  the  tests  that  supreme 
souls,  the  best  souls  must  meet  between  the  con- 
secration of  their  lives  and  the  living  of  their 
lives;  between  their  ordination  under  the  open 
heavens  and  their  ministry  in  an  open  world. 
Not  to  lust,  to  murder,  to  drunkenness  or  to 
theft  are  these  solicitations,  but  to  those  spirit- 
ual experiences  that  test  the  heart  of  a  ministry 
in  Jesus's  time  or  ours.  How  will  you,  who 
have  been  baptized  with  God's  power,  use  that 
power  .'^  Will  you  use  it  on  your  advantage  or 
save  it  for  your  task.^^  Will  you  make  bread  for 
yourself,  or  will  you  make  bread  for  others.'^ 
Will  you  save  yourselves  or  save  others.?  You 
cannot  do  both.  He  could  not  do  both.  Which 
do  you  mean  to  do.^^  Will  you  put  the  test  of 
success  upon  a  material  or  upon  a  spiritual 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

basis?  How  shall  we  tell  men  to  live,  upon 
bread  alone,  or  upon  every  word  from  God? 
How  shall  we  live  ourselves?  What  did  that 
other  Minister  answer  to  all  these  questions? 
No  wonder  the  voice  from  heaven  said,  "This 
is  my  Son."  No  wonder  either  that  it  added, 
"Hear  him."  A  minister  like  that,  using  his 
power  in  that  fashion,  deserves  to  be  heard. 

How  shall  we  use  God's  promises?  How  shall 
we  get  a  hearing?  Shall  we  throw  ourselves 
down  before  the  crowds  to  test  God's  promises, 
to  see  whether  they  are  true?  Shall  we  make  a 
display,  a  merchandise  of  our  sonship?  Shall  we 
call  upon  the  angels  to  save  us  while  we  engage 
in  these  vulgar  theatrics?  Or  shall  we  trust 
God  and  his  promises  without  putting  him  to 
these  tests?  Shall  we  get  our  hearing,  not  by 
the  display  of  our  piety,  but  by  the  worth  of 
our  message?  And  shall  we  only  call  upon  the 
angels  to  help  us  while  we  are  walking  in  the 
path  of  obedience  and  duty?  Jesus  seemed  so 
very  sure  of  God,  so  sure  of  him  that  he  would 
not  put  him  to  a  test.  And  he  had  his  reward. 
Angels  do  not  care  much  for  men  treating  God 
with  question  and  test.  But  it  is  the  business 
of  the  universe  to  have  angels  at  hand  to  keep 
such  a  minister  as  Jesus  from  dashing  his  foot 
against  a  stone  while  he  walks  in  the  way  of 
faith  and  service. 

300 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INSPIRATION 

How  will  you  try  to  win  your  world,  near  and 
far,  the  world  spread  out  to  large  view  and  the 
world  of  the  narrow  limits?  Will  you  try  to 
win  it  by  going  over  to  it,  by  compromise  with 
it,  conformity  to  it,  by  bowing  down  to  it? 
Maybe  you  can  dodge  the  cross  that  way. 
Maybe  you  can  follow  Him  without  denying 
yourself  or  taking  up  your  cross  daily.  Maybe 
you  can  get  a  wide  reputation  for  shrewdness, 
worldly  wisdom,  and  hard-headed  common 
sense,  as  of  a  man  who  has  his  feet  on  the 
ground,  and  is  not  a  visionary.  You  will  not 
be  called  a  fanatic,  nor  your  life-story  be  told 
under  the  title,  "A  Singular  Life,"  if  you  try 
this.  You  will  escape  the  crucifixion  that  comes 
for  righteousness  sake  if  you  do  it  this  way. 
Or  when  you  come  face  to  face  with  the  ques- 
tion, will  you  tell  all  the  devils  of  compromise 
with  evil,  of  bargain  with  wrong,  of  worship 
of  success  no  matter  how  won,  that  you  will 
have  none  of  them,  that  they  are  to  get  behind 
you  and  stay  out  of  sight,  that  you  have  re- 
sisted selfishness  and  presumption  and  will  not 
yield  to  compromise?  You  cannot  win  your 
world  and  worship  it.  He  could  not.  You  can- 
not. Which  things  are  an  event  and  a  prin- 
ciple, an  event  that  makes  a  minister's  heart 
hammer  with  courage  and  hope,  an  event  that 
creates   faith    and   courage   and   resolution   to 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

keep  life  from  evil;  a  principle  that  throws 
itself  into  the  centuries  with  the  power  of  a 
life  blameless  and  endless.  Nothing  that  He 
did  was  more  inspired  or  more  inspiring  than 
this.  For  a  man  needs  to  be  inspired  to  meet 
such  crucial  crises  in  his  life.  And  a  man  who 
meets  them  in  this  manner  is  inspiring  to  all 
other  men  who  take  him  seriously.  If  the 
angels  had  any  interest  in  Jesus,  they  must 
have  watched  the  steps  of  this  experience  with 
breathless  interest  and  rapturous  delight.  They 
must  have  sung  when  he  refused  to  call  upon 
them  to  save  him  from  unwarranted  test,  but 
they  must  have  come  on  swiftest  wing  to  min- 
ister to  him  when  the  battle  was  won.  The 
devil  will  tempt  you  as  the  devil  tempted  him. 
But  you  can  determine  whether,  when  it  is 
over,  the  devil  will  remain  in  possession  of  the 
field  of  your  soul,  or  whether  the  devil  will 
leave  and  the  angels  will  come.  And  the  world 
of  tempted  men,  men  battling  for  their  souls, 
battling  in  the  realm  of  high  principles,  battling 
in  the  heart  of  life,  battling  at  its  depths  and  on 
its  heights  will  have  courage  or  fear,  bravery  or 
cowardice,  will  win  or  lose,  not  on  the  basis  of 
what  you  say  about  temptation,  but  on  the 
basis  of  the  way  you  meet  it.  Nothing  that 
Jesus  could  have  said  would  have  had  a  par- 
ticle of  creative  power  in  it,  an  iota  of  inspira- 

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THE  MINISTRY  OF  INSPIRATION 

tion  to  other  men,  if  he  had  talked  wisely  and 
broken  weakly  at  any  of  these  points. 

And  the  devil  left  him  and  the  angels  came, 
and  I  doubt  not  they  said  over  and  over  to  him, 
"Thou  art  God's  Son,  men  will  hear  you."  And 
men  do.  For  we  can  tell  his  story  in  the  col- 
leges and  let  this  record  loose  in  the  world  of 
men.  This  is  the  royal  way  minister  men  ought 
to  meet  temptation.  This  is  the  way  they 
ought  to  use  their  power,  use  God's  promises, 
get  their  hearing  and  win  their  world.  Nobody 
wants  you  to  sell  out,  either  to  your  own  selfish- 
ness, or  to  your  fear,  or  to  the  devil  himself. 
And  when  you  strike  step  with  that  other  One 
there,  when  men  see  the  two  of  you  walking 
that  way  of  victory  together,  walking  that  way 
which  makes  sure  that  other  men  will  be  fed, 
no  matter  about  you;  that  God's  promises  will 
be  used  in  the  path  of  duty,  that  the  devil  is 
beaten  again  at  his  own  game,  then  men  will 
know  that  the  real  ministry  has  come  again  to 
the  world.  And  you  need  not  be  surprised  to 
have  one  and  another  gratefully  say  to  you, 
"Dominie,  we  know  that  you  are  a  preacher 
come  from  God,  for  no  one  lives  this  kind  of 
life  except  God  be  with  him." 

I  cannot  go  on,  alluring  as  this  is  to  me.  I 
dare  not  think  that  I  have  made  clear  what  I 
wanted   to   make   clear   in   this   study   of   the 

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GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

ministry  of  inspiration.  This  awful  feeling  of 
failure  will  burden  your  souls  as  you  come  to 
the  end  of  sermons  on  such  themes  as  this. 
Shall  we  remember  to-day,  and  always,  for  our 
comfort,  the  reality,  the  nearness,  the  inward 
presence  of  that  Holy  Spirit  which  forever  helps 
our  infirmities,  so  that  listening  men  will  catch 
the  vision  of  a  spiritual  life,  and  long  to  live  it, 
even  though  you  have  stumbled  through  the 
discussion  of  it.  So  I  dare  hope  it  may  be 
to-day.  Our  sufficiency  is  not  of  rhetoric  or 
logic,  after  all,  but  of  God. 

And  far  more  than  we,  he  desires  to  have  a 
ministry  of  inspiration  in  the  earth  in  this  our 
day.  He  sees  how  the  world  has  come  in  its 
new  Exodus  toward  the  land  of  promise  to  the 
bitter  waters  of  Marah  again,  the  waters  that 
do  not  taste  good  to  the  soul  of  man.  He  longs, 
as  aforetime,  that  his  ministers  shall  throw  the 
living  branch  of  healing  into  these  bitter  waters 
of  the  world,  that  men  shall  drink  in  the  desert, 
go  forward  in  the  march,  and  not  die.  He  sees 
the  world  always  going  one  of  two  ways,  from 
worldliness  into  more  worldliness,  or  from  world- 
liness  into  some  more  spiritual,  ethical  way  of 
life  for  men  and  the  world.  He  knows  that 
always  it  has  been  the  men  of  inspiration  who 
have  set  the  currents  the  right  way.  He  knows 
what  has  been  done  in  all  the  centuries  by  lofty 

304 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INSPIRATION 

souls,  not  a  few,  by  his  Son  above  all,  to  make 
him  real  to  men,  to  make  their  own  souls  real 
to  them,  and  he  waits  to  make  a  new  ministry 
of  power  and  inspiration  to  make  him  real 
again.  He  knows  how  prophets  and  evangelists, 
men  known  to  the  world,  men  unknown  to  wide 
circles,  have  by  the  Spirit  lifted  other  men 
above  narrowness,  above  complacency,  above 
low  ideals  and  low  outlooks,  above  their  sins 
even,  and  have  created  hope  and  courage,  given 
comfort  and  strength,  and  have  been  as  the 
shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land.  He  is 
eager  to  see  again  the  working  of  the  miracle 
that  inspiring  personalities  have  always  worked 
upon  other  personalities.  For  this  is  the  miracle 
that  he  cares  to  see  repeated  in  the  world,  the 
miracle  of  life  renewing  and  transforming  life. 
He  had  one  Son  in  whom  he  was  always  pleased. 
His  heart  yearns  over  us  that  we  shall  be  such 
sons  as  shall  please  him  again.  Shall  we  dis- 
appoint him.f^ 

Once  a  simple  woman  said  to  a  prophet,  "I 
know  that  thou  art  a  man  of  God."  Once 
again  people  took  knowledge  of  some  others 
that  they  had  been  with  Jesus  and  learned  of 
him.  Our  Father  seeks  again  men  of  whom  that 
can  be  said  with  truth. 

So,  to  make  us  ministers  of  inspiration,  he 
gives  us  his  Spirit,  gives  us  his  truth,  conse- 

305 


GOOD  MINISTERS  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

crates  our  lives  and  perfects  our  personalities. 
So,  to  keep  us  inspiring,  he  keeps  us  at  work, 
ties  us  up  with  all  human  need,  makes  us  his 
sons,  fights  our  battles  with  us  and  for  us,  keeps 
us  from  evil  and  makes  us  men  like  that  other 
Minister  in  whom  he  was  always  well  pleased. 
This  is  our  joy  as  we  older  men  think  sadly  of 
such  poor  ministry  as  we  have  had.  This  is  our 
joy  as  we  think  hopefully  of  such  glorious  min- 
istry as  you  may  have  in  the  world.  The  war 
will  not  always  last.  It  will  not  always  be  the 
center  of  conversation,  the  disturbing  fact  in 
all  thought.  The  world  must  be  rebuilt  in 
righteousness  and  peace,  in  truth  and  brother- 
hood, in  love  and  holiness.  There  is  no  other 
name  under  heaven  whereby  it  can  be  restored 
than  the  name  that  is  above  every  name. 
There  is  no  other  service  beyond  the  service  a 
Christlike  ministry  can  render,  must  render,  to 
Christ's  world.  The  day  of  the  ministry  is 
disturbed  and  difficult,  but  not  gone.  Many 
heads  are  weary,  many  hearts  faint,  but  the 
power  of  an  endless  life  is  in  your  Master  and 
from  him  in  you.  Rise,  let  us  be  going,  to  be 
inspiring  voices  "in  the  rich  dawn  of  an  ampler 
day,"  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister 
and  to  give  our  lives  for  the  ransom  of  men,  to 
touch  souls  beset  with  fear,  crushed  with  woe, 
bereft  of  love,  despoiled  by  evil,  with  the  power 

306 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  INSPIRATION 

of  the  creative  Christ,  so  that  faith  and  hope 
and  love  may  be  born  again  in  the  Hves  of  men. 
And  they  will  say  as  of  old  it  was  said,  an 
"angel  came  again,  and  waked  me,  as  a  man 
that  is  wakened  out  of  his  sleep."  Thus  shall 
the  good  ministry  of  Jesus  Christ  bring  to  pass 
the  fulfillment  of  the  ancient  words:  "Hereafter 
ye  shall  see  the  heavens  open,  and  the  angels 
of  God  ascending  and  descending."  Much  of 
our  ministry  lies  behind  us;  most  of  yours  lies 
before  you.  See  that  ye  abound  in  all  these 
graces  that  are  his  and  yours. 


307 


DATE  DUE 

^'^y^Tlf'^^^ 

m 

M^^*'""*™S' 

CAYLORD 

PNINTEOINU.S.A.            1 

